Edward Lawrence Schieffelin (1847–1897) was an American prospector and Indian Scout who discovered silver in the Arizona Territory, an event that led to the founding of Tombstone.

He entered into a partnership with his brother Al and mining engineer Richard Gird in a handshake deal that produced millions of dollars in wealth for all three men.

His great-grandfather Jacob Schieffelin, Sr., born in 1757, joined the Loyalist army and served as Henry Hamilton's secretary during the Revolutionary War.

Jacob's wife, Hannah Lawrence, was a descendant of Quaker colonial religious pioneer John Bowne, Elizabeth Fones, and the Winthrop family of New England.

From Oregon, he went east to Coeur d'Alene, then searched across Nevada into Death Valley, back into Colorado and then New Mexico.

Unsuccessful, he heard that a group of Hualapai Indians had enlisted as scouts for the U.S. Army, which was establishing a camp to counter the Chiricahua Apache threat and to secure the nearby border with Mexico.

Silver had already been discovered in some northern areas of Arizona Territory, but the southern portion had been under continued Apache attack.

They were only about 12 miles (19 km) from the hostile Chiricahua Apache Indians led by Cochise, Geronimo and Victorio that had established a stronghold in the Dragoon Mountains.

In September 1860, two of the white men were robbed and murdered at the cabin and Brunckow was found dead in the mine with a rock drill through him.

[5] Brunckow's San Pedro mine influenced Ed Schieffelin to prospect the rocky outcropping northeast of the cabin.

When friend and fellow army scout Al Sieber learned what Schieffelin was up to, he is quoted as telling him, "The only rock you will find out there will be your own tombstone".

After many months, Ed was working the hills east of the San Pedro River when he found pieces of silver ore in a dry wash[10] on a high plateau called Goose Flats.

[10][11] Flat broke, Schieffelin persuaded William Griffith to pay for the legal paperwork required to file a mining claim on September 3, 1877.

He believed Al was working the Silver King mine, about 180 miles (290 km) to the north in central Arizona Territory near present-day Globe.

But Schieffelin learned that Al had moved on to the McCracken Mine in Signal City, Arizona, another 300 miles (480 km) north.

He found a job as a hoist operator at the Champion silver mine, and for fourteen days hauled up a dozen tons of ore every night by cranking a hand windlass.

They shook hands on their three-way deal, a gentlemen's agreement that was never put down on paper but that resulted in millions of dollars of wealth for all three men.

Gird wanted time to wind up his affairs and to wait for spring and better weather, but Ed insisted they depart immediately.

Reaching Arizona Territory, and despite reports of continued Apache raids and the murder of miners and ranchers in the area, the three men returned to Cochise County and set up camp at the Brunckow cabin.

He found that Schieffelin's initial find of silver ore was valuable, but within a few weeks of mining the vein, Ed discovered it ended in a pinch about three feet deep.

Indifferently, Al told Ed he was a "lucky cuss," and that became the name of one of the richest mining claims in the Tombstone District.

On June 17, 1879, Schieffelin showed up in Tucson driving the blue spring wagon carrying the first load of silver bullion valued at $18,744 (about $612,929 today) When the first claims were filed, the initial settlement of tents and cabins was located at Watervale near the Lucky Cuss mine.

Late one night, their mules broke loose and dragging their chain, left the miners' dry camp for water along an Indian trail.

[10] Ed Schieffelin preferred prospecting to running a mine and he left Tombstone to find more ore.[15] When he returned four months later, Gird had lined up buyers for their interest in the Contention, which they sold for $10,000 to J.H.

[20] At its height in the mid-1880s, Tombstone's population was officially about 7,000 miners, but some estimates figure in an additional 5–7,000 women and children, Chinese, Mexicans, and prostitutes.

Schieffelin had made a practice of studying maps and believed there was a great "continental belt" of mineral wealth that extended from South America through Mexico, the United States, and British Columbia.

They married the same year in La Junta, Colorado, and they spent part of the winter in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In 1897 Schieffelin bought a ranch near his brothers Effingham (Eff) and Jacob (Jay) outside Woodville, now Rogue River, Oregon.

Schieffelin was interred about 3 miles (4.8 km) northwest of Tombstone, Arizona, near the dry wash in which he originally found silver ore and the later location of the Grand Central Mine.

"I give my wife, Mary E. Schieffelin, all interests, both real and personal properties—in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties, California—also fifteen $1,000 University of Arizona Bonds.