[3] Tevis ran away from home in 1849, at the age of twelve, and joined the crew of a steamboat headed to New Orleans, Louisiana.
[4] Tevis migrated to New Mexico Territory, working with the Butterfield Overland Mail Company in 1857,[5] and there, he helped to construct the stage station at Apache Pass, Arizona.
[6] James Henry Tevis served with Herbert's Battalion, Arizona Cavalry during the American Civil War.
Tevis filed a homestead application for 160 acres in Cochise County, claiming he had settled in 1880 – then was awarded a patent in 1890.
Ten years later, this book became the basis for The Tenderfoot (miniseries), a television production[9] by Walt Disney's The Wonderful World of Color in 1964.