Mickey Free

Mickey Free, real name Felix Telles, was an Apache scout and bounty hunter on the American frontier. Following his capture by the Apache, Free was raised as one and became a warrior before his time as a scout, serving at Fort Verde between December 1874 and May 1878. Free's mother was Jesusa Martinez, a Mexican woman who had been held captive by the Apaches; his father has been the subject of dispute, with some saying he was an Apache who had taken her for his wife, others that Free's father was Santiago Tellez, who was reportedly part Irish. In 1859, now widowed, Jesusa and her two children, Felix and his sister Teodora, met and moved in with John Ward, an Irishman who had migrated to Arizona and started a ranch. The August 26, 1860 Federal census for the Sonoita Creek Settlement in the Arozona Territory of W. New Mexico, indicates that Felix Ward was 12 years old, his sister Teodora was 10 and his sister Mary was 5 months. Their Mexican mother Jesus Martinez was 30 years old and her Irish spouse John Ward was 54 years old. Half-brother Santiago Ward claimed being born on July 25, 1860 but that contradicts the census record.