USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. I > Part 14
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The Indians had had a taste, however, for the white man's firewater and mention is made of an interpreter who "told the General he had tasted the liquor of Sonora and New Mexico and would like to taste a sample of the United States. The dog had a liquorish tooth and when given a drink of French brandy pro- nounced it better than any he had ever seen or tasted."
Emory had written in his daily journal of continually finding ruined remains of the habitations of ancient peoples. Sharing interest with the good Indians was Casa Grande, within the Pima country. He called it the remains of a three- story mnd house. The Indians called it "Casa Montezuma," but the bibulous interpreter admitted that the Pimas after all knew nothing of its origin. Emory was, however, told the old Pima story of the primeval woman of surpassing beauty, who rejected all courtiers, though her goodness and generosity were unlim- ited when there came a time of drouth. One day as she was lying asleep a drop of rain fell upon her and from an immaculate conception she bore a son, the founder of a new race, who built all these houses. An immaculate conception
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story, of one sort or another, is to be heard among most of the southwestern tribes, as well as a tale of the Flood.
EMORY PROPHESIES ON THE SOUTHWEST
Not far from Yuma the expedition unexpectedly ran across a number of Mexicans, driving about 500 horses from Sonora to California, undoubtedly for the use of the Mexican forces on the coast. The chief of the party represented himself as the employee of several rich rancheros, but later it was learned that he really was a colonel in the Mexican army. The horses, though nearly all wild and unbroken, were a valuable find, for the horses and mules of the Kearny expe- dition were lean and worn out. That the horses were indeed for the remounting of General Castro's command in California was definitely determined through the capture of a Mexican messenger, eastward bound with letters for Sonora, telling how the Californians had thrown off the detestable Anglo-Yankee yoke and had re-established Mexican authority.
Before leaving Arizona, Lieutenant Emory made a few observations concern- ing the country at large that are of interest to-day. He said: "In no part of this vast tract can the rains from Heaven be relied upon to any extent for the cultiva- tion of the soil. A few feeble streams flow in from different directions from the great mountains, which in many places traverse this region. The cultivation of the earth is therefore confined to those narrow strips of land which are within the level of the waters of the streams, and wherever practiced in a community with any success or to any extent involves a degree of subordination and absolute obedience to a chief repugnant to the habits of our people." He believed that along the Salinas (Salt) and some other rivers land could be found capable of irrigation. A memorandum was made of the Mexican highroad between Sonora and California, which, from the ford of the Colorado below the mouth of the Gila, crossed a fearful desert toward the southeast, that endured for nearly a week's journey.
There were also some observations concerning the Indians at large. The Pimas were considered the best, with a high regard for morality and with a desire for peace, though without any incapacity for war. The Maricopas were considered a bit more sprightly than their neighbors. The Apaches lived prin- cipally by plundering the Mexicans, and near the headwaters of the Salinas was told of the existence of a band of Indians known as the "Soones," who in manner, habits and pursuits "are said to resemble the Pimas, except that they live in honses scooped from the solid rock. Many of them are Albinos, which may be the consequence of their cavernous dwellings." This description of the Zuñi pueblo dwellings, on hearsay evidence, is about as good as any heard by Friar Marco de Niza.
The Colorado River was crossed by the expedition November 24. The stream was forded at a point where it was about one-third of a mile wide and four feet in extreme depth, with a river bottom about ten miles wide, overgrown with thicket. Prediction was made by Captain Johnston that the river "would at all seasons carry steamers of large size to the future city of 'La Vaca' at the mouth of the Gila."
Emory stated his belief that the Colorado always would be navigable for steamboats, though full of shifting sandbars above the mouth, and that the Gila
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might be navigated up to the Pima villages, and possibly with small boats at all stages of water. He wrote of seeing near the junction of the two streams, on the north side, the remains of an old Spanish church, built near the beginning of the seventeenth century, by the renowned Padre Kino. "The site of this mission," he predicted, "will probable be the site of a city of wealth and importance, most of the mineral and fur regions of a vast extent of country being drained by the two rivers." That the Gila was in rather abnormal state of clarity is shown by his reference to the "sea-green waters lost in the chrome-colored hue of the Colorado." In these latter days the Gila usually discharges a flood that is nearly black into the brick-red waters of the Colorado.
The column was met at La Pascual, on December 6, by a superior force of Mexicans under command of Gen. Andrés Pico. Kearny did not wait for attack, but set his column in motion at 2 a. m., with Captain Johnston in command of the vanguard. The enemy, encountered about daylight, was charged and driven from the field in disorder. That resistance was keen was indicated by the fact that the United States forces had a casualty list of eighteen killed and thirteen wounded. Among the killed were Captains Johnston and Moore and Lieutenant Hammond, while the wounded included General Kearny, Captains Gillespie and Gibson and Lieutenant Warner. It is told that the Mexican losses were much heavier. Carson and Lieutenant Beale thereafter slipped through the Mexican lines to summon help from San Diego.
The following day the Californians reformed and made an unsuccessful attack. The enemy being in so much greater force, the situation of Kearny's command was not enviable, and it is possible that the long journey might have ended in disaster had it not been for reinforcement received on the evening of December 10 of 180 sailors and marines, sent out from San Diego by Commodore Stockton, bringing clothing, provisions and ammunition. The Californians, unaware of the approach of this body, were surprised and they fled, leaving many of their cattle.
The following day the Americans entered San Diego in triumph, and the Kearny column later took a prominent part in the final overthrow of Mexican rule within Alta California.
ORGANIZATION OF THE MORMON BATTALION
While General Kearny was making his more hurried way to California with a detachment of cavalry, a larger military body, of infantry, followed from Santa Fé, comprising the famous Mormon Battalion, under the command of Lieut .- Col. P. St. George Cooke. This body marched southward a considerable distance, down the Rio Grande, thence westward to the San Pedro, thence fifty- five miles northward, where a trail was taken to Tucson, to the Pima villages, and then down the Gila.
The Mormon Battalion was one of the most remarkable military bodies ever formed. It was recruited in Missouri among a people persecuted because of their religion and practically outlawed both by the State and Nation. Their leaders threatened with death and threatened with pillage in their temple city of Nauvoo in western Illinois, as well as in Missouri, they had finally decided to move west- ward, in the hope of finding a promised land, wherein they could dwell without molestation.
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This desire was conveyed through Mormon channels to President Polk, to whom, about the same time, went a suggestion that from these Mormons might be recruited a sturdy band of volunteer soldiery that would serve well in conquering and occupying California. Elder J. C. Little of the Latter Day Saints' New England Conference, went to Washington, at first with the idea of securing for the Mormons work in the construction of a number of stockade posts, which were designed along the line of the overland route. But, after interviews with the President and other officials, the President changed the plans suggested, and instructed the Secretary of War to make out dispatches to Colonel Kearny, com- mander in the West, for the formation of a battalion of Mormons.
Colonel Kearny, who was commander of the First Dragoon Regiment, then stationed at Fort Leavenworth, selected Capt. James Allen of the same regiment to be commander of the new organization, with volunteer rank as Lieutenant- Colonel. The orders read : "You will have the Mormons distinctly understand that I wish to have them as volunteers for twelve months; that they will be marched to California, receive pay and allowances during the above time, and at its expiration they will be discharged and allowed to retain as their private prop- erty the guns and accouterments furnished them at this post."
Captain Allen proceeded at once to Mount Pisgah, a Mormon camp 130 miles east of Council Bluffs, where, on June 26, 1846, he issued a circular inviting recruits, in which was stated: "This gives an opportunity of sending a portion of your young and intelligent men to the ultimate destination of your whole people at the expense of the United States, and this advance party can thus pave the way and look out the land for their brethren to come after them." President Brigham Young of the Mormon Church and his associates gave their support. George Q. Cannon, later President of the Church, stated some secret history in years thereafter, probably on mere hearsay evidence: "Thomas H. Benton, United States Senator from the State of Missouri, got a pledge from President Polk that if the Mormons did not raise the battalion of 500, he might have the privilege of raising volunteers in the upper counties of Missouri to fall upon them and use them up."
July 16, 1845, five companies were mustered into the service of the United States at Council Bluffs, Iowa Territory. The company officers had been elected by the recruits, including Captains Jefferson Hunt, Jesse B. Hunter, James Brown and Nelson Higgins. George P. Dykes was appointed adjutant, and William McIntyre assistant surgeon. It would appear that the only practical soldier in the lot was the commanding officer.
The march westward was started July 20, the route leading through St. Joseph and Leavenworth, where were found a number of companies of Missouri volun- teers. Colonel Allen, who had secured the confidence and affection of his soldiers, had to be left, sick, at Leavenworth, where he died August 23. At Leavenworth full equipment was secured, including flintlock muskets, with a few caplock guns for sharpshooting and hunting. Pay also was drawn, the paymaster expressing surprise at the fact that every man could write his own name, "something that only one in three of the Missouri volunteers could accomplish." August 12 and 14 two divisions of the battalion left Leavenworth, about the same time the main body of the Mormon exodus crossed the Missouri River.
The place of Colonel Allen was taken, provisionally, by First Lieut. A. J.
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Smith of the First Dragoons, who proved impolitic and unpopular, animus prob- ably starting through the desire of the battalion that Captain Hunt should suc- ceed to the command. The first division of the battalion arrived at Santa Fé October 9, and was received by Colonel Doniphan, commander of the post, with a salute of 100 guns. Colouel Doniphan was an old friend. He had been a lawyer and militia commander in Clay County, Missouri, when Joseph Smith was tried by court martial at Far West in 1838, and had succeeded in changing a judgment of death passed by the mob. On the contrary, Col. Sterling Price was considered an active enemy of the Mormons.
On the arrival of the battalion in Santa Fé, Lieutenant-Colonel-Cooke, an officer of dragoons, succeeded to the command under appointment of General Kearny, who already had started westward. Capt. James Brown was ordered to take command of a party of about eighty men, together with about twoscore of women and children, and with them winter at Pueblo, on the headwaters of the Arkansas River.
Colonel Cooke made a rather discouraging report upon the character of the command given him for the task of marching 1,100 miles through an unknown wilderness. He said: "It was enlisted too much by families ; some were too old, some feeble, and some too young ; it was embarrassed by too many women ; it was undisciplined; it was much worn by travel on foot and marching from Nauvoo, Illinois ; clothing was very scant ; there was no money to pay them or clothing to issue ; their mules were utterly broken down ; the quartermaster department was without funds and its credit bad; animals scarce and inferior and deteriorating every hour for lack of forage. So every preparation must be pushed-hurried."
THE MORMON MARCH THROUGH ARIZONA
After the Mormons had sent their pay checks back to their families, the expedition started from Santa Fé 448 men strong. It had rations for only sixty days. The commander wrote on November 19 that he was determined to take along his wagons, though the mules were nearly broken down at the outset, and added a delicate criticism of General Frémont's self-centered character. "The only good mules were taken for the express for Fremont's mail, the general's order requiring the twenty-one best in Santa Fé."
Colonel Cooke soon proved an officer who would enforce strict discipline. He had secured an able quartermaster in Brevet Second Lieut. George Stoneman, First Dragoons, in later days Colonel of regulars in Arizona, and, after discharge, with the rank of General, elected to the high position of Governor of California.
Before the command got out of the Rio Grande Valley, the condition of the commissary best is to be illustrated by the following extract from verses written by Levi W. Hancock :
We sometimes now for lack of bread, Are less than quarter rations fed, And soon expect, for all of meat, Nought less than broke-down mules, to eat.
The trip over the Continental Divide was one of hardship, at places tracks for the wagons being made by marching files of men ahead to tramp down ruts wherein the wheels might run. The command for forty-eight hours at one time
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was without water. From the top of the Divide the wagons had to be taken down by hand, with men behind with ropes, and the horses driven below.
Finally a more level country was reached, on December 2, at the old, ruined ranch of San Bernardino, near the southeastern corner of the present Arizona. The principal interest of the trip, till the Mexican forces at Tucson were encoun- tered, then lay in an attack upon the marching column of a number of wild bulls in the San Pedro Valley. It had been assumed that Cooke would follow down the San Pedro to the Gila, but on learning that the better and shorter route was by Tucson, he determined upon a more southerly course.
Tucson was garrisoned by about 200 Mexican soldiers, with two small brass field pieces, a concentration of the garrisons of Tubac, Santa Cruz and Fronteras. After some brief parley, the Mexican commander, Captain Comaduron, refusing to surrender, left the village, compelling most of its inhabitants to accompany him. No resistance whatever was made. When the battalion marched in, the Colonel took pains to assure the populace that all would be treated with kindness, and sent to the Mexican commander a courteous letter for the Governor of Sonora, Don Manuel Gandara, who was reported "disgusted and disaffected to the imbecile central government." Little food was found for the men, but several thousand bushels of grain had been left and was drawn upon. On September 17, the day after the arrival of the command, the Colonel and about fifty men "passed up a creek about five miles above Tucson toward a village (San Xavier), where they had seen a large church from the hills they had passed over." The Mexican commander reported that the Americans had taken an advantage of him, in that they had entered the town on a Sunday, while he and his command and most of the inhabitants were absent at San Xavier attending mass.
The Pima villages were reached four days later, Pauline Weaver serving as a guide. By Cooke the Indians were called "friendly, guileless and singularly innocent and cheerful people."
In view of the prosperity of the Pimas and Maricopas, Colonel Cooke sug- gested that this would be a good place for the exiled Saints to locate, and a pro- posal to this effect was favorably received by the Indians. It was probable that this suggestion had much to do with the colonizing by Mormons of the upper part of the nearby Salt River valley in later years.
About January 1, to lighten the overload of the half-starved mules, a barge was made by placing two wagon bodies on dry cottonwood logs, and on this 2,500 pounds of provisions and corn were launched on the Gila River. The improvised boat found too many sandbars, and most of its cargo had to be jettisoned, lost in a time when the rations had been reduced to a few ounces a day per man. January 9 the Colorado River was reached, and the command and its impedi- menta were ferried over on the same raft contrivance that had proven ineffective on the Gila.
Colonel Cooke, in his narrative concerning the practicability of the route he had taken, said: "Undoubtedly the fine bottomland of the Colorado, if not of the Gila, will soon be settled; then all difficulty will be removed." The battalion had still more woe in its passage across the desert of southern California, where wells often had to be dug for water, and where rations were at a minimum, until Warner's Raneh was reached, where each man was given five pounds of beef a day, constituting almost the sole article of subsistence. Tyler, the Mormon histo-
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rian, insists that five pounds is really a small allowance for a healthy laboring man, because "when taken alone it is not nearly equal to mush and milk," and he referred to an issuance to each of Frémont's men of an average of ten pounds per day of fat beef.
END OF THE MARCH AND MUSTER-OUT
December 27 the long-looked-for Pacific Ocean at last appeared, in plain view, and quarters were taken up at a mission five miles from San Diego, where General Kearny was quartered.
After reporting to the General, Colonel Cooke issued an order congratulating the battalion on its safe arrival and the conclusion of a march of over 2,000 miles. "History may be searched in vain for an equal march of infantry. Half of it has been through a wilderness where nothing but savages and wild beasts are found, or deserts where, for want of water, there is no living creature. Without a guide who had traversed them, we have ventured into trackless tablelands where water was not found for several marches. With crowbar and pick and axe in hand, we have worked our way over mountains, which seemed to defy anght save the wild goat, and hewed a passage through a chasm of living rock more narrow than our wagons. Thus, marching half naked and half fed, and living upon wild animals, we have discovered and made a road of great value to our country. Thus, volunteers, you have exhibited some high and essential qualities of veterans."
The Mormons marched northward, and in Los Angeles had a number of personal encounters with men of Frémont's command, it being charged that Frémont himself had done all he could to arouse ill-feeling against the Mormons. Stories had spread among the Mexicans that the Mormons were cannibals, espe- cially fond of tender children. A small fort was erected commanding the town of Los Angeles, laid out by Lieutenant Davidson of the First Dragoons, with places for six guns.
Following practical rejection by the men of an offer of reinlistment, the Mormon Battalion was discharged at Fort Moore, Los Angeles, July 15, 1849, exactly a year from the date of enlistment. The ceremony was brief. According to Tyler, the companies were formed in column and "the notorious Lieut. A. J. Smith then marched down the lines in one direction and back between the next line, and then in a low tone of voice said, 'You are discharged.' This was all there was of ceremony of mustering out of service these veteran companies of living martyrs to the cause of their country and religion."
On the 20th one company, made up from the discharged battalion, reinlisted for six months under Capt. Daniel C. Davis, to return to garrison San Diego.
In several companies, organized under captains of hundreds, fifties and tens, most of the remainder of the battalion started on foot for Salt Lake, at which point had been established the headquarters of Mormondom. There the men rejoined their families and received warm welcome as well from the leaders of the Church.
A list of the surviving members of the battalion, made by Tyler in March, 1882, inchided the following names, residents of Arizona at that time: Adair Wesley ; H. W. Brazee, Mesa : George P. Dykes, Mesa ; Wm. A. Follett ; Marshall
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Hunt, Snowflake; P. C. Merrill, St. David; David Pulsipher, Concho; S. II. Rogers, Snowflake; Henry Standage, Mesa ; Lott Smith, Sunset.
Soon after the treaty of peace with Mexico, in the late summer of 1848, Maj. Lawrence P. Graham led a squadron of dragoons to California from Chihua- hua, marching via the old San Bernardino ranch, the Santa Cruz presidio. and down the Santa Cruz to Tucson. Yuma was reached October 30. Records of this expedition especially note the drunkenness of its leader. According to John H. Slaughter, now owner of the San Bernardino ranch, an old ranch house, half a mile south of his present home and on Mexican territory, was built by this Graham party. The Agua Prieta spring passed by Colonel Cooke he believes to have been one in Anavacachi Pass, twelve miles southwest of Douglas.
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CHAPTER VII EARLY MINERS AND PROSPECTORS
Spanish Silver Mines and the Planchas de Plata-American Operations Along the Border-First Copper Production at Ajo-Placers-Walker and Weaver Ex- peditions.
The history of mining in Arizona is, practically, the history of Arizona. When the Spaniards started across the deserts north of Culiacan through Pimeria and Apacheria, hunting for the Seven Cities of Cibola, they sought the spread of the Holy Faith and of the domain of their sovereign king, but their imme- diate reward was to be the gold in treasure houses, later found to be mud-built pueblos. Since that time the mountains of the Southwest have been searched most thoroughly. The Spaniard of old and his Mexican successor were the best prospectors and the closest judges of ore ever known. But, necessarily, they could mine only the richer and freer veins of the metal that they found. They hunted for gold and for silver. The latter they smelted in rude adobe furnaces, from which came, for hundreds of years, much of the wealth that sustained the then-dominant kingdom of Spain. Along the southern border of what is now Arizona, they established towns, clustered around churches, and dug in mines of wonderful richness, mines which today are known only by name, for their shafts were filled and the landmarks obliterated by an Indian uprising against the taskmasters.
From the time of the Spaniard to the time of the American miner was a long step. The first American mining followed in the pathways made by the Span- iards, along the southern border, where ore was taken ont that was almost pure silver or copper and shipped by mule team to the Colorado, and thence to civ- ilization. But the latter-day miner was not content, and his scouts spread north- ward, at first along the Colorado River, and then eastwardly into the jagged mountains where the Apaches dealt death. By these pioneers were discovered the great Vulture mine and the celebrated Weaver diggings. The great Silver King in what is now the northern portion of Pinal county, was an accidental discovery, with its enormous pillar of silver, so rich that it was passed over for several years as being nothing but lead. The mines at Globe were located for silver, and there are remains still of silver mills, where veins are worked around the Miami valley, and McMillen at Pioneer and in Richmond basin.
Discovery was made of the riches of northwestern Arizona, where mines that were found more than fifty years ago still are being worked, all the way from White Hills to Signal. Around Prescott hundreds of claims were worked in the early sixties, when the miner needed a guard of riflemen as protection for his life and property against the Apache. This pluck, or foolhardiness. if you choose,
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