USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 3
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In 1868, the official family was endorsed again by the voters, for McCormick passed from the office of governor to that of delegate. He received 1,237 votes, while his opponents, John A. Rush and Adams respectively had only 836 and 32 votes. Poston complained with bitterness that McCormick had traded the capital for the vote of Pima County. This contention was sustained to a degree by the fact that the capital was moved, though assuredly not on any strength from Northern Arizona that might have been controlled by McCormick. .
In 1870 McCormick was re-elected, receiving 1,882 votes, over Peter R. Brady, who, though a democrat of notable standing, received only 832. In 1872 McCormick again was elected, apparently with no opposition, for 2,522 votes are credited to him, which would have meant not far from the ordinary voting strength of the territory.
There was a change in 1874. It is evident that political lines had not been severely drawn and that the personal popularity of the candidates had counted for much. With the retirement of McCormick, a democrat became delegate in the person of Hiram S. Stevens, whose vote was 1,442, compared with the vote of his republican adversaries, C. C. Bean, 1,076, and John Smith, 571. A story has come down concerning the novel way in which Stevens is said to have forwarded his candidacy by distributing $25,000 among the gamblers of Arizona to bet upon him, the gamblers to take the winnings and he to take back his capital. A gambler was a political force in those days, and it is probable that they threw much influence towards Stevens in order to win the money, and it is entirely probable also that Stevens received back every cent of his investment. Stevens was re-elected in 1876, though it was a rather narrow squeeze, probably because he could not use his scheme twice. He was opposed by two exceptionally strong men, Wm. H. Hardy, the Mohave County pioneer, a republican, and Granville H. Oury, who had always handsomely represented the southern element. Stevens won, but his vote was only 1,194, Hardy receiving 1,099 votes and Oury, 1,007.
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In 1878 the struggle for Congress was a sort of free-for-all, participated in by Stevens, John G. Campbell, a Yavapai County stockman, King S. Woolsey, the noted Indian fighter, and A. E. Davis. Campbell was elected, with 1,452 votes, then following Davis, 1,097, Stevens, 1,090, and Woolsey, 822. It is a very odd fact that though Campbell served his term in Congress, it was found after his death that he had never been a citizen of the United States. He had presumed that citizenship had been given by his father, but in this was in error.
The first law passed by the new Legislative Assembly, approved October 1, 1864, authorized the governor to appoint a commissioner to prepare and report a code of laws for the use and consideration of the Legislature. As such commissioner was appointed Judge Wm. T. Howell, to whom later was paid the sum of $2,500. The Howell code for several years thereafter was the law of the land and still is considered by lawyers a legal compilation of high merit.
Possibly coming to the assistance of some harassed debtor, the Legislature enacted "that no indebtedness or liability incurred . . or judgment recovered . . . against any person prior to his arrival in this territory shall be binding or have any effect whatever or be in any way enforced in any court in this territory for the term of four years from the date of the passage of this act." The act was repealed the following year.
That the history of Arizona even at that time was considered of some value was indicated by official approval of the incorporation of the Arizona Historical Society, whereof the members were Secretary McCormick, W. Claude Jones, Allen L. Anderson, Gilbert W. Hawkins, King S. Woolsey, Henry O. Bigelow, A. M. White, Charles A. Curtiss, James S. Giles, James Garvin, Richard Gird, T. J. Bidewell, Edward D. Tuttle, William Walter and Samuel Todd. The object of the society was set forth as being the collection and preservation of all historical facts, manuscripts, documents, records and memoirs relating to the history of this territory, geological and mineralogical specimens, geograph- ical maps and information, Indian curiosities and antiquities, and objects of natural history.
TOLL ROADS AND RAILROADS
Then as now highways were of large importance in the public estimation. The only way in which the territory could get good roads seemed to have been by farming out the thoroughfares. So a number of toll-road companies were licensed. One, the Arizona-Central Road Company, was to build from La Paz to Weaver and was authorized to collect 4 cents a mile from each two-horse wagon drawn over it. This company was authorized also to operate its toll road as far as a point not less than one mile from the Town of Prescott. Another corporation, in which appeared the names of several of the legislators, was the Tucson, Poso Verde and Libertad Road Company. George Lount, Albert O. Noyes and Hezekiah Brooks were granted the privilege of constructing a toll road between the mouth of Bill Williams Fork and Prescott, their corpora- tion to be known as the Santa Maria Wagon Road Company. Still another, the Mojave and Prescott Toll-Road Company, headed by Rufus E. Farrington, was to build from Fort Mojave to Prescott. The first north-and-south thor- oughfare was contemplated by the Prescott, Walnut Grove and Pima Road Company, which was authorized to build southward to the Pima villages. with
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a branch to the Town of Weaver, and to collect 5 cents a mile. The list of incorporators included Bob Groom, Richard Gird, R. C. McCormick, J. T. Alsap, Jackson MeCracken, Jack Swilling and King S. Woolsey. To the eastward Edmund W. Wells, King S. Woolsey and others, constituting the Prescott and Fort Wingate Road Company, were given the exclusive privilege to construct and operate a toll road from Prescott to Fort Wingate.
A ferry franchise was granted to Samuel Todd, giving him exclusive right on the Colorado River at Mojave City. A similar franchise was granted to William D. Bradshaw at La Paz.
Railroads also were held in esteem. Henry Sage, Richard Gird and a half dozen others were authorized to construct and operate a railroad from the Castle Dome mines to Castle Dome City and were to have a passenger tariff of 10 cents a mile. Another corporation, the Arizona Railroad Company, had an official flavor in that it was headed by John N. Goodwin and Richard C. McCormick. Its aspirations were ambitious, to connect Guaymas and other Pacific ports, through Tubac, with Tucson and thence to the Town of La Paz, with an exclusive right to locate a line of road across the territory.
CONSIDERING THE APACHE
Possibly dissatisfied with the operations of the regular army, authorization was given the governor for raising not over six companies of rangers, not to exceed 600 men, to be employed in a campaign against hostile Apaches. The expense was to be met by the issuance of $100,000 in territorial bonds to bear 10 per cent interest and to run for twenty years. The governor, King S. Woolsey and John Capron were appointed commissioners to carry out the provisions of the act. Goodwin and Woolsey went to San Francisco, but could not sell these bonds. From the territorial funds was appropriated the sum of $1,480 payable to A. M. White, R. C. McCormick, P. McCannon and Thomas Hodges "for money and supplies furnished in the late Indian campaign con- ducted by the citizens of this Territory." Money for the first necessities of the territorial government was provided by a bond issue of $15,000, repayable in three years and bearing 10 per cent interest. Delegate Poston by resolution was asked to procure from the central government 500 stand of Springfield rifled muskets, caliber 58, of the latest improved type, sufficient for the purpose of arming and equipping a battalion of Arizona rangers for active service against the Apaches and other hostile Indian tribes. Thanks were extended to Lieut .- Col. King S. Woolsey in a concurrent resolution with having, "with great perseverance and personal sacrifice, raised and led against the Apaches during the present year three several expeditions, composed of citizen volun- teers, who, like their commander, had spent their time and means and up to this time had been entirely unrecompensed therefor." It is added that "these expeditions have been highly beneficial to the people, not only in taking the lives of a number of Apaches and destroying the crops in their country, but also by adding largely to the geological and mineralogical knowledge of the country." A similar resolution expressed appreciation of the services of Capt. T. T. Tidball of the Fifth Infantry, California Volunteers, whose various suc- cessful expeditions against the barbarous Apaches were considered as meriting the highest expression of approbation.
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CALIFORNIA'S CLAIMS ON YUMA
According to the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ratified in 1848, a part of the boundary between the contracting republics was defined as a line drawn from the middle of the Gila River where it unites with the Colorado to a point on the Pacific Ocean one marine league south of the port of San Diego. This line constituted the southern boundary of California when admitted into the Union as a state in 1850. Complication thereupon was threatened, for a tract of 150 acres, within which much of the present town of Yuma now lies, thus would appear to have been lost, as the division line between California and the Territory of New Mexico extended over to the southward of the Colorado River, which at that point has a northern bend. This difficulty was appreciated as early as the First Legislature of Arizona, which asked that Congress annex this tract to Arizona, providing the State of California re- linquish her right to it. In the memorial was recited the fact that this small tract of land had become an important commercial point, that it was opposite Fort Yuma and remote from any California civil government, of little impor- tance to California and of vast consequence to Arizona and that if annexed to Arizona the benefit of civil government would be immediately extended over it from Arizona City, which lay adjoining it.
In 1877 Congress was memorialized to add to the territory's expanse the southwestern portion of New Mexico, including the area embraced within Grant County, which, it was claimed, had interests that brought its people very close to Arizona in a commercial and social way.
The First Legislature was in session forty-three days and passed forty of the 122 bills introduced. The pages at the session were John and Neri Osborn, both now residents in Phoenix. A son of the latter now is Arizona's secretary of state, after following in his sire's footsteps to the extent of acting as page in Arizona's Twentieth Territorial Legislature. At the first session, Secre- tary McCormick made the pages more appreciative by paying them in great sheets of "shinplasters," wherein the sections, when cut apart, each had a value of 5 cents.
THE COUNTY OF PAHUTE
The first county of Arizona to be created by legislative enactment was that of Pah-Ute in December, 1865, by the first act approved in the second terri- torial legislative session. The boundaries of the county were described as commencing at a point on the Colorado River known as Roaring Rapids; thence due east to the line of 113 deg. 20 min. west longitude; thence north, along said line of longitude, to its point of intersection with the 37th parallel of north latitude; thence west, along said parallel of latitude. to a point where the boundary line between the State of California and the Territory of Arizona strikes said 37th parallel of latitude; thence southeasterly, along said boundary iine, to a point due west from said Roaring Rapids; thence due east to said Roaring Rapids and point of beginning. Callville was created the seat of justice and the governor was authorized to appoint the necessary county offi- cers. The new subdivision was taken entirely from Mohave County. It may be noted that its boundaries were entirely arbitrary and not natural and the greater part of the new county's area lay in what now is the southern point
MEMBERS OF THE EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, ARIZONA, 1875
Council: 1. K. S. Woolsey, president; 2, J. P. Hargrave; 3, L. A. Stevens: 4, J. M. Redondo; 5. S. R. DeLong; 6, J. G. Campbell; 7, A. E. Davis; 8, W. Zeckendorf; 9, P. R. Brady,
House: 10. J. T. Alsap, speaker: 11, G. H. Oury; 12. F. M. Griffin; 13. A. L. Moeller; 14, S. Purdy, Jr .; 15, G. H. Stevens; 16. R. H. Kelly; 17, J. M. Elias; 18, W. J. O'Neil; 19, H. Richards; 20, S. W. Wood; 21, J. Montgomery; 22, A. Rickman; 23, S. H. Drachman: 24, C. P. Head; 25. G. Brooke: 26. H. Goldberg: 27. L. Bashford: 28. W. J. Tompkins, sergeant-at-arms, Council; 29, J. T. Phy, sergeant-at-arms, House,
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of the State of Nevada. October 1, 1867, the county seat was moved to Saint Thomas. November 5, 1866, a protest was sent by memorial to Congress against the setting off to the State of Nevada of that part west of the Colorado. The grant of this tract to Nevada under the terms of a congressional act approved May 5, 1866, had been conditioned upon similar acceptance by the Legislature of Nevada. This was done January 18, 1867. Without effect, the Arizona Legis- lature twice petitioned Congress to rescind its action, alleging "it is the unani- mous wish of the inhabitants of Pah-Ute and Mohave Counties and indeed of all the constituents of your memorialists that the territory in question should remain with Arizona; for the convenient transaction of official and other business and on every account they greatly desire it." But Congress proved obdurate and Nevada refused to give up the strip and the County of Pali-Ute, deprived of most of her area, finally was wiped out by the Legislature in 1871. At first, it was claimed that Saint George and a very wide strip of southern Utah really belonged to Arizona.
EXPRESSION OF LOYALTY
Though, naturally, Confederate sympathizers were numerous within Ari- zona, the territory as a whole appeared generally to have remained loyal in thought and in legislative action. This in all probability largely was due to the influence of the discharged California volunteers, rugged and forceful men, who were distributed through all the settlements, early taking a prom- inent place in the administration of affairs. This loyalty had formal expression in the Second Legislature, which in December, 1865, passed a resolution ex- pressing joy at the successful termination of the war, sympathy with those whose homes had been made desolate and gratitude to Almighty God for his pro- tection in the trying hour. Unswerving support was pledged to the reconstruc- tion plans of President Johnson and pride was expressed in the deeds of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. About the same time was recorded a concurrent resolution of regret over the death of Abraham Lincoln. The legislators made record of their abhorrence of "the dastardly act which deprived the nation of the valuable life of Abraham Lincoln, when his great statesmanship and noble character had won the confidence and applause of the civilized world; that here, where civil law was first established by the generous consideration of his administration, as elsewhere upon the continent, which owes so much to his honest and persistent devotion to liberty, to justice and to the govern- ment of the people, his name is honored and revered as that of a true patriot, a profound ruler and a magnanimous and unselfish man, whose highest motive was the public good, and whose consistent career has elevated the dignity, brightened the renown and enriched the history of the Republic."
WORK OF THE LEGISLATURES
The work of the following sessions of the legislatures can be briefed: The third session in 1866 created the offices of district (county) attorney and of territorial auditor. In the fourth session, 1867, the capital was moved to Tucson ; resolutions were passed criticising General McDowell and asking that Arizona be made a separate military department. In 1868 was an act establishing a territorial prison at Phoenix; creation was made of the offices of territorial Vol. 11-2
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attorney general and county surveyor, and much attention was given to the public schools. The prison act was not carried out. Then annual sessions of the Legislature were abandoned. The next, the sixth, was held in 1871. The county seat of Yuma County was transferred from La Paz to Arizona City ; the County of Maricopa was created from southern Yavapai, north of the Gila and west of the San Carlos River; the Legislature repealed the act creating Pah-Ute County, and attached to Mohave County the balance left within Ari- zona. In 1873, in addition to the divorce acts and other matters considered elsewhere, the name of Arizona City was changed to "Yuma," Maricopa County was given a part of Pima County, and General Crook was commended. Gov- ernor Safford was authorized to publish an immigration pamphlet. Pinal County was created in the session of 1875 from parts of Pima, Maricopa and Yavapai counties, including Globe. A bullion tax was levied on the mining product, and the capital was "permanently" located at Tucson. Despite this last action, the ninth session, two years later, transferred the capital back to Prescott, effective after the Legislature's adjournment. In 1877, also, the county seat of Mohave County was changed to Mineral Park; amendment was made of the northern boundary line of Maricopa County; the City of Tucson was incorporated; authorization was given for the organization of a company of volunteers to fight Indians; a memorial was passed asking for the addition to Arizona of Grant County, New Mexico.
FREMONT'S SERVICE AS GOVERNOR
John C. Frémont, "The Pathfinder of the Rockies," was appointed Gov- ernor of Arizona June 12, 1878, the post secured by his friends from President Hayes to relieve pressing financial necessities. The new governor and family were welcomed most hospitably into the really delightful society of Prescott and, without cost, were provided a well-furnished home, a pleasant cottage, on the site of the present city library. The governor's salary was a meager one and old accounts were pressing, so Frémont, a born promoter, looked for other ways for adding to his income. He became mixed in various local mining schemes, in which he was charged with having received commissions. It soon was told that, though testy in manner, he could be swayed easily and that a trio of Prescott lawyers had much to do in the direction of his attitude toward legis- lation and general administrative work. There can be no doubt that he con- sidered himself far too large for the position he occupied. Though he held office nearly four years, he was much of the time in the East, though ostensibly on Arizona public business. In October, 1881, Territorial Secretary Gosper addressed the secretary of the interior, "recommending either to you or to Congress that the regularly appointed governor of this territory be required to return to his post of duty, or be asked to step aside and permit some other gentleman to take his place and feel at liberty to act without restraint." In the same communication Gosper referred with feeling to the local sentiment against carpetbag officials. Delegate John G. Campbell in Washington per- sonally voiced the antagonistic feeling that had grown up in Arizona toward Frémont. Finally the governor was given the alternative of returning to his field of duty or of resigning. He resigned. He died in New York, in 1890, still impecunious.
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Governor Frémont gained a deep insight into frontier politics through the fact that he had two rather notable legislatures on his hands. In the tenth, which met in 1879, a very interesting bill, which he favored and signed, estab- lished and legalized a scheme on the same lines as the Louisiana Lottery, with a "rake-off" provided for the territory. But Congress had a veto right on all territorial legislation, and so the grand plans came to naught. In this session was created the County of Apache, out of a great strip cut from the eastern part of Yavapai, "Mother of Counties." Snowflake was the first county seat, but there was transfer later to Springerville and then to St. Johns. The Legis- lature petitioned Congress to finally settle all Arizona land grant claims by positive enactment, but suggested that title to mines be not included, as evi- dently not intended by the language of the Spanish and Mexican deeds of grant.
LEGISLATURES GRANT DIVORCES
A couple of weeks after the organization of the First Territorial Legislature, the governor's second approval of a bill was that of one granting a divorce to John G. Capron of the First Judicial District, who, as set forth in the act, four years before, "by fraudulent concealment of criminal facts," was induced to marry one Sarah Rosser, and the act further recited that "notwithstanding the strongest legal causes exist for annulling said marriage, there is no law of divorce existing in this Territory." For the same reason Elliott Coues (later distinguished as a writer on the Southwest) was divorced from one Sarah A. Richardson and a divorce was granted between Mary Catherine Mounce and Absalom Mounce.
Possibly the most conspicuous example of the legislative divorce evil in Arizona was afforded by the passage in the Legislature of 1873 of an act divore- ing Anson P. K. Safford, a resident of the County of Pima, from his wife, Jennie L. T. Safford. Whatever were the circumstances of the misunderstanding between the couple or any degree of justice that might have attended the decree, there must be recorded the glaring fact that the plaintiff in the case was none other than the governor of the territory.
The Tenth Legislature distinguished itself by the passage of what for years was known as the Omnibus Divorce Bill. This bill carried an act, No. 9, approved by Governor Frémont on February 7, 1879, forever releasing from the bonds of matrimony, with permission for both parties to marry again, no less than fifteen couples. The list follows :
Olive Augusta Middleton of Maricopa County from William Middleton; William Findley Smith of Yuma from Eudora Virginia Smith ; George Sarrick of Pinal County from Ann J. Sarrick; Sarah Jane Munds of Yavapai from Wil- liam M. Munds; Henry G. Lively of Maricopa County from Martha E. Lively ; Lilly E. Janes of Yuma County from J. Clifford Janes; Lidia Jane Russell of Mohave County from George Russell; John J. Gosper of Yavapai County from Waitie E. Gosper; Candelaria Arnold of Mohave County from William F. Arnold; Smith R. Turner of Pima County from Lucinda Turner; Anna Atkin- son of Yavapai County from Alex Atkinson ; Samuel Dennis of Yavapai County from Benina Dennis; Jane Holmsley from Joel E. Holmsley; Mary Jane Pend- well of Yavapai County from Elanson Strange Pendwell; Josephine Waite of Yavapai County from Nathan W. Waite. During the same session other acts
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divorced Anne Kelly from Daniel Kelly and Mary I. Showers of Yavapai County from Andrew J. Showers.
Down at the bottom of these most extraordinary proceedings is said to have been the fine Italian hand of Thomas Fitch, who happened at that time to have made Arizona one of his many "permanent" abiding places. He was elected to the Legislature, wherein he filled the post of chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House. The start of it all is understood to have been around the paragraph that gave release to William F. Smith, noted as a resident of Yuma. In reality Smith was a prominent California physician, who had made only a brief visit to Yuma intent upon divorce. Another very conspicuous beneficiary was John J. Gosper, who at that time occupied the position of Secretary of Arizona Territory. Gosper had left a wife behind in Nebraska, where he also had held office, and he wanted to remarry, which he did soon after the legislative decree in his favor.
It would appear that the divorces granted were legal enough, for the Supreme Court of the Territory of Oregon had held valid an Oregon divorce bill, passed in 1852. The Supreme Court of the United States affirmed this decision, taking occasion to refer to the fact that in England, divorce originally was a prerogative of Parliament and that legislative assemblies of the colonies had followed this example. The Forty-ninth Congress prohibited the granting of divorces by territorial legislatures.
WHEN RACING WAS MADE UNLAWFUL
In the Legislature of 1879, Maricopa County was represented by John A. Alsap and J. D. Rumberg, the latter a famous teller of stories and owner of a quarter section of land a short distance northwest of the Phoenix townsite on the Black Cañon road. Having lost some money on the lack of speed of a pony he 'had favored in betting, he introduced a bill prohibiting horse racing in Arizona. It is probable that the measure was seriously presented, but it was not taken in that spirit. One after another the members from the various coun- ties arose solemnly to express their belief in the merit of the bill, but to state in sadness that their own counties were not quite ready for the reform. So, county by county, every subdivision was exempted from the provisions of the measure, except Maricopa. Then Alsap came to his feet. He stated that he was fully aware of the demoralization caused by horse racing, but, in deference to the prejudices of his constituents, he was constrained to ask still further elimina- tion, that of all Maricopa County, except a certain quarter section, the descrip- tion of which exactly fitted Rumberg's ranch. Thus the bill was passed, though it never was printed in the statutes.
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