In the latter half of his life, he lived at the San Bernardino Ranch, which is today a well-preserved National Historic Landmark in Cochise County in far southeastern Arizona.

[3] In the early 1860s, Slaughter defended American settlers against hostile Comanche as a Texas Ranger.

[3] He fought Union forces in Burnet County, west of the capital city of Austin, Texas.

[7] In the late 1870s, Slaughter left Texas for New Mexico, where he traded cattle and planned to start a ranch.

[3] Initially settling in Charleston, Arizona, he later purchased the San Bernardino Ranch, on the U.S.–Mexico border near Douglas, in 1884.

[3] As sheriff, he helped track Geronimo, the Apache chief who was caught on the San Bernardino Ranch.

[3][4] On April 16, 1879, Slaughter, at the age of thirty-seven, married eighteen-year-old Cora Viola Howell at Tularosa, New Mexico Territory.

Swain was employed by Slaughter for a brief period before leaving the San Bernardino ranch and moving to Tombstone where he remained until his death.