USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 26
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Cross, a New England man, had political opinions very much at variance with those of Sylvester Mowry, a local mining magnate, and the two soon clashed, after Mowry had been attacked violently in the editorial columns of the Ari- zonian. So Cross was sent a challenge, which was accepted promptly, with rifles as weapons. Mowry's second was none other than Bill Oury of Tucson, while J. W. Donaldson acted for Cross. The toss was won by Cross and Mowry was placed with the sun shining in his face. Both missed at the first fire. At the second fire Cross missed and Mowry's rifle failed to explode. Mowry then, as was his right, coolly reprimed his weapon and raising it to his shoulder aimed it at his opponent, who stood calmly with his arms folded, awaiting what seemed inevitable death. This continued for possibly half a minute, when Mowry raised the muzzle of his weapon and fired it into the air. Thereafter, it is told that the pair became sworn friends. Mowry soon after assured himself against hostile newspaper criticisms by purchasing the Arizonian.
There is a tale, here repeated without any guarantee of its truth, to the effect that two of the Tubac printers, Jack Sims and George Smithson, were charged with complicity in a stage robbery, that Smithson was killed while resisting arrest and that Sims was discharged after an able defense by Grant Oury.
According to Sam Hughes, the Arizonian ended its career in Tubac in 1860 (Bancroft makes it in the following year) and the paper was brought to Tucson. J. Howard Mills is said to have edited it for a while after the change, possibly representing Mowry's friend, W. S. Onry. S. R. DeLong supplements the story by telling how the plant was utilized for a few weeks by a traveling printer named Pearce, who proved over-bibulous. Then DeLong bought the material and published the Arizonian himself. L. C. Hughes tried to buy the paper, but found that it was for sale to anyone except L. C. Hughes.
The Arizonian's press is now in Tucson, a sacred relic in the rooms of the Arizona Pioneer Society, after service in handling the first issue of the Tueson Citizen, utilization on the Tueson Star and Dos Republicas and in the printing of the first and many subsequent copies of the Nugget, Tombstone camp's first paper. It was given to the Pioneer Society by William Hattich of the Tomb- stone Epitaph when he abandoned the Arizona newspaper field in August, 1913.
According to some correspondence in the Arizona Republican, the first news- paper in northern Arizona was the Mojave Dog Star, which came off the press October 1, 1859. The editors and proprietors were Montgomery, Peters and
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Johns. Montgomery stands for Montgomery Bryant who afterward was a colonel in the regular army; Peters otherwise was known as Peter R. Brady, who at the time was post trader at Fort Mojave, and Johns was Dr. John J. Milhau, an army surgeon. The paper was issued more for pastime than other- wise, its ostensible object being to correct the free love tendencies of the Mojave Indians.
NORTHERN ARIZONA JOURNALISM
The next newspaper came with the territorial government, the material brought overland, purchased by Governor Goodwin and Secretary McCormick. This material included a Ramage press, understood to have been made in Phila- delphia as early as 1825, and in use in Prescott as late as 1880. It was in the big fire of 1900. Its bed was recovered, however, and lately was in use as an im- posing stone in one of the Prescott printing offices. The first issue of the Arizona Miner came out March 9, 1864, and the very first copy that came from the press still is preserved. The nominal editor was Tisdale A. Hand, though it is understood that "Dick" McCormick was responsible for much of the editorial matter. The paper's date line told of its publication at Fort Whipple, which then was at Postle's ranch, near the later better-known Banghart place, and near the present railroad station of Del Rio. As was the fashion of the times, it had a motto, "The Gold of that Land is Good." It was a neat little sheet, with four columns to the page. Advertising occupied only a single column. The news mainly was of Indian depredations, in which the pluck and audacity of the Pinal Apaches made them foes much to be feared.
When the military camp was moved to Prescott, the newspaper came also. Its first issue in Prescott, in June, 1864, was with the press set up between two log walls, without a roof, on the western side of the plaza. Soon thereafter Hand was succeeded by E. A. Bentley.
The Miner's lineal successor still is in existence, the Daily Journal-Miner, a consolidation of two papers, effected in August, 1885. For years it has been under the management of J. W. Milnes.
Of the many who were associated with the publication of the sheet in any- thing like pioneer times, only two survive, A. F. Banta, who was employed in 1864, and J. C. Martin, who was editor after the consolidation. Some of the names of the departed ones are bright in history, including John H. Marion, who in years thereafter published the Prescott Courier with B. H. Weaver. Hand and Meecham, the earliest editors, are dead, the latter from wounds re- ceived in an Indian fight in Copper Basin. Col. H. A. Bigelow and "Long Tom" Butler, later territorial treasurer, have passed away. Chas. W. Beach, for many years owner of the sheet, was assassinated near Prescott in 1889. One of his successors, S. N. Holmes, was burned to death in the Sherman House fire in Prescott. "Buckey" O'Neill died at the head of his troop in Cuba, during the Spanish war.
The claim of the Journal-Miner to lineal succession from the original Miner has been disputed by E. E. Rogers, editor of the Prescott Courier, himself suc- cessor to the chair of John Marion.
Indicating the vicissitudes of early-day journalism, Banta has a story, in which the leading characters are Editor Hand and a desperado, Lou Thrift,
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FIRST TERRITORIAL PRESS ASSOCIATION OF ARIZONA, PHOENIX, 1890
First row : W. L. Vail, Phoenix; John Dorrington, Yuma; L. C. Hughes (President), Tucson; George W. Brown, Tucson; J. O. Dunbar, Phoenix.
Second row: Ed. S. Gill, N. A. Morford, Paul Hull, Jas. H. MeClintock, Phoenix; R. C. Brown, Tucson; C. W. Jolinstone, Phoenix.
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who had come from New Mexico with the Peck party and who, still later, was killed, almost accidentally by an inoffensive fellow named Jay, whom he had been bullying. Jay, in turn, met a violent death, killed by Apaches in the Big Bug district. The Hand story follows:
Thrift was a native of Virginia and an ardent sympathizer of the southern cause, and was likely to grossly insult anyone "wearing the blue." One day at dinner in the Prescott House, early in the summer of 1864, he had a dispute with Tisdale E. Hand, the nominal editor of the Arizona Miner, over some incident of the war then in progress between the states. The two sat at opposite sides of the table, and in the dispute Hand was so indiscreet as to call Thrift a liar. At first Thrift was more astonished than otherwise; soon recovering himself he proposed to settle the matter there and then with "Colonel Colt" as arbiter. To this Hand demurred and said he was "unarmed and never carried a pistol." Thrift replied, "Such cowardly curs as you are ready to shoot off their mouths and then hide behind the law." Thrift carried two six-shooters; drawing one, he cocked the gun and placed it beside Hand's plate, remarking at the same time, "Now you are armed; cut loose." Hand was badly frightened and dared not touch the gun; but begged Thrift not to shoot him, and said, "Mr. Thrift, you have the advantage and could kill me before I made a move." By this time Thrift was simply boiling with rage; jumping up, leaving his pistol on the table, Thrift stepped back to the wall some distance away; he hissed through his teeth, "Now, you white-livered scoundrel, you have the advantage." Notwithstanding the cocked gun lying beside his plate Hand very prudently declined to do any shooting. He lacked the nerve, even with all the advantage Thrift gave him. Had he attempted to shoot and had shot, unless the shot was suddenly fatal Thrift would surely have killed him. Thrift picked up his gun and made a move to kill Hand; but instead, he slowly returned the gun into the scabbard, remarking as to himself, “No credit to kill a cur like that." Shortly after this Mr. Hand left the country for the East.
THE NEWS IN THE OLD PUEBLO
Following the brief career of the Arizonian in Tucson, the Arizona Citizen was established October 15, 1870, by John Wasson, surveyor general of the territory, and edited by W. W. Hayward. For a while in that year there were only two other Arizona newspapers, namely, the Miner and the Enterprise, both published in Prescott. Capt. John P. Clum, fresh from experiences as an Indian agent, bought the Citizen from Wasson in 1877. The following year he moved it to Florence where official patronage could be commanded through the land office, but it was back again in Tucson soon. Wasson established the Daily Citizen in 1879, selling out in 1880 to go to Tombstone. For many years prior to 1901 the Citizen was edited by Herbert Brown, now deceased, who left a name fully as notable for natural history researches as for editorial work. Brown, one of the mildest mannered of men, for a term served as superintendent of the state penitentiary at Yuma. Wasson also is dead, passing away only a few years ago in Pomona, Cal. The Tucson Citizen for several years was pub- lished by O'Brien Moore, a man of national reputation as a journalist and long the representative of large newspapers in the press galleries of Congress. He had made the Citizen a forceful exponent of democratic principles till the date of his death, late in 1909. Purchasers in 1910, returning the sheet to the republican ranks, were James T. Williams, former member of the United States Civil Service Commission, and Allen B. Jayne, the latter an Arizona journalist, who has retained management of the paper to the date of this writing.
The first daily paper in Arizona, The Bulletin, was started in Tucson in March, 1877, by Tully & Hughes, with only four columns to each of its four pages. It prided itself on its telegraphic service, that came, when the wires
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were not down, across the desert from San Diego. That was a fearful and wonderful telegraph line, strung even on giant cactus, its wires frequently utilized by unfeeling teamsters for wagon repairs. The Bulletin lasted only a month or so, when it was succeeded by the Tri-Weekly Star, later a daily, and edited by Louis C. Hughes, for a while attorney general of Arizona and, during the second Cleveland administration, governor of the territory. Attached to the Star edited by Charles H. Tully, was a Spanish publication, Las Dos Republicas. The Star was sold to W. B. Kelly in July, 1907, by Governor Hughes, who told in his last editorial that only once in thirty years had an issue been missed and only thrice had there been failure to publish a telegraphic report.
It is notable that the earliest newspapers of Tucson are also the last. Not less than twelve daily and ten weekly newspapers have died in the old pueblo. The most notable of the lot was the Morning Journal, published in 1881, the first seven-day daily ever issued in Arizona.
NEWSPAPERS OF PHOENIX
In January, 1878, Phoenix was given its first newspaper, the Salt River Valley Herald, a weekly edited by Chas. E. MeClintock and owned by him, Territorial Secretary J. J. Gosper and C. W. Beach. McClintock furnished the experience, Gosper a note of hand and Beach some printing material. All three are dead, Gosper dying a few years ago in dire poverty, in Los Angeles. In 1879 the name of the publication was changed to the Phoenix Herald, and it was made a semi-weekly. In the fall of the same year was commenced publica- tion of a daily. MeClintock died in the summer of 1881. About a year later N. A. Morford, later territorial secretary, secured control and managed the paper until its consolidation with the Republican in May, 1899.
Among the various Phoenix newspapers that have been born only to soon pass away, one of the earliest and one of the most interesting was the Weekly Expositor, moved up from Yuma in 1879 by Judge Jas. A. Reilly. The paper for a while was issued daily. Reilly was an early-day iconoclast, who knew well how to write interestingly in the vernacular of the time. He was a charac- ter unique even in the Southwest. When he first struck Arizona his living was earned by cutting wood on the Colorado banks for the river steamboats. He had managed to study a little law at Yuma. In Phoenix he printed his thoughts too freely and thus lost the democratic county printing. His income cut off, he left for Tombstone during the early days of the camp, where his legal pickings were not very profitable before he became attorney for Martin Costello. Wher- ever any lack of legal training presented itself, he had a shrewd native wit that carried him far. There is an old story to the effect that he was visited by a young man who asked the cost of admission to the bar, under Reilly's instruc- tion. Reilly gravely considered the matter for a moment and answered: "Well, that will be according to the amount of laaw you want to know. Now, if you want to know as much laaw as, we'll say, Mark Smith, it'll cost you about tin dollars; if you want to know as much laaw as Allen English, you will have to raise it to about twinty dollars ; but, me son, if you want to know as much laaw as I do it'll cost you wan hundred dollars."
The daily Arizona Gazette was founded in 1880, by Chas. C. and H. H. McNeil, two printers from San Jose, California. The first editor was Wm. O.
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O'Neill. July 4, 1887, the Gazette was sold by H. H. McNeil to several South- ern Arizona lawyers and John O. Dunbar of Tombstone. This paper still covers the evening field in Phoenix, after years of vicissitudes and of many changes of ownership and of policy, now being in the democratic column. It is owned by Chas. H. Akers, former territorial secretary, and H. A. Tritle, son of former Governor Tritle. Dunbar still remains in the harness, publishing a weekly that bears his own name and that deals particularly with political criticism.
The Arizona Republican was started as a seven-day daily May 19, 1890. Its manager was Ed. S. Gill, its editor, Chas. O. Ziegenfuss, a newspaper man of long experience and large ability. Ziegenfuss, a victim of his own convivial habits, after having served in editorial capacities on a number of the leading newspapers of America, finally died in San Francisco by the gas route. The Republican was started as an organ, pure and simple. Its stockholders were Governor Wolfley and the officials of the territorial government, each assessed to make up a monthly deficit in income. The first year of its publication cost the stockholders not less than $25,000, and the only possible return was their gratification in the issuance of what was undoubtedly a paper far ahead of the time, with the first full Associated Press report ever taken in Arizona. Ziegen- fuss and Gill were succeeded by W. L. Vail, and he by T. J. Wolfley, the last a Saint Joseph, Mo., newspaper man. In 1898 the paper was bought by Frank M. Murphy of Prescott and returned again to high value from a newspaper standpoint, under charge of C. C. Randolph, a Washington journalist. After several years of success, Randolph sold his interest to former State Auditor Geo. W. Vickers, who secured the services of Sims Ely as editor. Mr. Ely remained in that capacity till 1905. September 1, 1909, the Republican was purchased by Mr. Ely and S. W. Higley, a former railroad man. In the mean- time Mr. Ely had served as private secretary to Governor Kibbey, as territorial auditor and as chairman of the Arizona Railway Commission. In October, 1912, the journal passed to the ownership of a company headed by Dwight B. Heard and its policies were changed to conform to Mr. Heard's progressive ideas. For the greater part of the Republican's history it has profited by the services of J. W. Spear, who latterly has occupied the editor's chair.
TOMBSTONE AND ITS EPITAPH
Tombstone had its first newspaper, the Nugget, in the fall of 1879, A. E. Fay and Thomas Tully bringing from Tucson a printing outfit of most primitive sort, including the historic hand press on which had been printed the Tubac Arizonian.
May 1, 1880, was the date of the first issuance of the Tombstone Epitaph. founded by John C. Clum, postmaster and mayor of the town, Chas. D. Reppy and Thos. R. Sorin. There are two versions of the manner in which the paper received its name. One is that it was suggested by John Hays Hammond, the celebrated mining engineer, at a banquet given at the Can Can restaurant. The other is that while on the incoming stage, Clum asked his fellow travelers to make a suggestion for the name of the paper he was about to start. One of the passengers was Ed. Schieffelin. From him came the sage observation, "Well, I christened the district Tombstone; you should have no trouble in furnishing the Epitaph."
Vol. 11-13
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The early days of Tombstone journalism decidedly were not monotonous ones. The camp was "wide open" and human life and money both were held in little account. Good items and good fellowship were on tap everywhere. Just as Virginia City took the cream of west coast newspaper men, so Tombstone skimmed to itself the brightest minds of the Southwest. Some of the writers of the pioneer days of the camp were Pat Hamilton, Harry Brook, John O. Dunbar, Sam Purdy, Harry Wood, Dick Rule, Wm. O. O'Neill and O'Brien Moore, men who knew what was news and how to write it well.
Pat Hamilton, of more than local fame as a writer, was editor of the Inde- pendent. Sam Purdy, who later controlled the political destinies of Yuma County, edited the Epitaph. It was the habit of the day for editors to slam each other editorially on every possible occasion. Hamilton and Purdy, with somewhat more than ordinary ability on either side, did the ordinary thing in such extraordinary fashion that a personal encounter at last seemed inev- itable. So in the fall of 1882 a duel formally was arranged between them. Ned MacGowan for Hamilton and Billie Milliken for Purdy arranged all details, proceeding solemnly on the basis of procedure secured by them in a study of Lever's novels. Dr. George Goodfellow, who died only a few years ago, chief of the Southern Pacific surgical staff, and Dr. MeSwegan were official surgeons. The party started out with ostentatious secrecy. Everyone knew all about it and bets promptly were offered in gambling saloons concerning the one or the other to be brought back feet foremost. The sad cortege reached a point in the San Pedro Valley a little below Hereford, where it was determined to start the carnage. A number of stories came back about the subsequent proceedings. It would appear that neither of the principals was very keen and that the seconds themselves were far from bloodthirsty. The seconds went to the extreme of pacing off the ground, then got in such a row over the position of the principals and the selection of pistols that they finally had to declare the whole affair "off" and the two parties made their way back to Tombstone by night. Next day they were forced to endure chaffing of the roughest sort.
Tombstone, at the date of this writing, has only one newspaper, the Daily Prospector, which has the Epitaph as its weekly issue. More than twenty years ago the Prospector passed into the unwilling hands of a local merchant, S. C. Bagg. Following the habit of the country, he was most outspoken on public matters and became adjudged in contempt of court for remarks passed upon a decision of District Judge W. H. Barnes. Bagg was fined $500 and committed to jail in default of payment. The sheriff being a good friend of his, Bagg had his cell nicely fitted up as an office and from it conducted the affairs of the newspaper and the store, his imprisonment made lighter by the sympathy of friends. He was well able to pay the fine, but was obstinate and preferred to be a martyr. Finally, the pleadings of his friends proving unavailing, they took up a subscription among themselves, paid the fine, and, presenting a legal release to the sheriff, dragged Bagg out of the cell and threw him into the street, the jail door being locked behind him against his indignant protests.
A few years thereafter, Barnes was attorney for the Phoenix Gazette and its managers in a libel suit brought before Barnes' successor, Judge R. E. Sloan, in the District Court at Tucson. Barnes, seeking a change of venue, had his clients sign an attack upon the probity of the court. The signers were hailed
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before the bar and asked why they should not be committed for flagrant con- tempt of court. Barnes' authorship of the affidavit then developing, he and Editor Dunbar were ordered to jail, Judge Sloan sorrowfully commenting on the necessity of having to maintain the dignity of his court when attacked by his predecessor in office. Judge Barnes went through the jail doors in a state approximating mental collapse. Sympathy and stimulants were extended by local partisans, however, and the judge cheered up to some extent. A messenger boy arrived with a telegram. Barnes opened it with a flourish, exclaiming : "Ha, Ha! Friends from afar have heard of this outrage." The telegram, held out, was read by a half-dozen at once. It was from Tombstone, Arizona :
"Judge W. H. Barnes, County Jail, Tucson, Arizona.
"Are you there, Moriarty? (Signed) S. C. Bagg."
For twenty years, until August, 1913, the Prospector and Epitaph were managed by William Hattich, the date of his retirement being the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Epitaph's publication.
JUDGE HACKNEY AND THE SILVER BELT
Possibly the most distinctive type of southwestern journalism was repre- seuted by Judge Aaron H. Hackney, of beloved memory, who, on May 2, 1878, issued the first number of the Silver Belt, Globe's first newspaper. With him for a month or so was associated A. H. Morehead. Hackney had had prior experience in the business, in Silver City, New Mexico, where he had bought a small weekly. Not satisfied with the name of the Silver City sheet, he changed it to "The Herald." No large type being available, the Judge had the new heading carved on a block of wood he sawed from a well-seasoned ox yoke. He had gone to New Mexico in 1857, after serving as a writer for the old Missouri Republican. He went to Silver City when it had but a single house, and it was he who gave the town and the new County of Grant their names. From Silver City he brought a small printing outfit, including a foot-power press on which the paper laboriously could be printed, one page at a time. His only absence from Globe was a trip to Tucson in 1882. From his window he saw the coming of the railroad, but he never visited the depot. After several years of paralysis that failed to more than slow down his mental activity, Judge Hackney died December 2, 1899. He was one of the most interesting of characters, a veritable father in the community, though confined for many years to his chair, by reason of failing strength and excessive weight. His kindliness even extended to con- sideration for the Apache Indians, and he was never quite ready to believe all the tales that were brought him of outbreaks or of frontier deviltry. The Silver Belt was continued after the death of Judge Hackney by his nephew, J. H. Hamill. The paper later was acquired by C. W. Van Dyke, who moved it to Miami. Hamill then returned, to start in Globe the Arizona Record, which still occupies the daily field under the management of C. E. Hogue.
In the very early days of Globe, from 1880 till the time of the copper slump, also flourished the Globe Chronicle, a newspaper founded by W. H. Glover and edited successively by Hinson Thomas, Judge Julius S. Van Slyke and Jas. H. MeClintock. The paper was owned by a local mining company. It gave espe- cial attention to mining and to the Indian news that Judge Hackney did not want to print.
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EDITORS WHO MET ADVERSITY
Geo. W. and R. C. Brown (not related by blood) made a strong journalistic team in early days. For a while, around 1881, they managed the Tucson Citi- zen. Later they owned the Florence Enterprise, one of the best of weeklies that carried the news of the entire territory. After the Enterprise had been moved to Tucson, the Browns became engaged in the bitter fight waged in 1892 against the administration of Governor Hughes. Tried for criminal libel against the good name of a Tucson attorney, they were sentenced in the District Court to one day in the territorial penitentiary. The journalistic fight really was being made against Frank Heney, then attorney-general of the territory. His demands for dominating authority later caused a break with Governor Hughes and the retirement of the attorney-general from office. If the sentence had been to the county jail, there would have been little criticism, but a penitentiary sentence carried with it not only added stigma but the loss of rights of citizen- ship. At the state capitol was held a session of the Arizona Editorial Associa- tion. The indignant editors then called at the executive offices to demand the pardon of the Browns before execution of sentence; Heney, behind Hughes' chair, was referred to for legal answer, but the editors refused to hear him. They made point blank demand upon the governor for the pardon, inferentially threatening dire consequences if it was not issued, and left the office with the precious document. It is an odd fact that the official record of this case, in the biennial message of Governor Hughes, shows that the Browns had been sen- tenced to five days in the penitentiary. This is one case where the memory of all participants questioned fails to agree with the record.
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