USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 32
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
petitors in their profession and the measure was passed in the way of protection to home industry. Then for a few years Phoenix and several other towns had annual carnivals, whereat for several evenings of the week women as well as men were freely admitted to the gambling. The traveling carnival of freaks and side shows later attached to these local holidays, which in turn went out of fashion.
AN ISLE OF ILL FATE TO ARIZONANS
While Tiburon (Shark) Island, in the Gulf of California, off the Sonora coast, has no direct connection with Arizona, nevertheless it has had to do with the fate of several Arizonans. The island, a most unattractive one, desert and poor and peopled only by hungry Seris Indians, ever has had a mysterious quality that has served to attract adventurers. The Indians reach the mainland across a narrow strait at extreme low water, though even then the passage is dangerous, owing to swift tidal currents. In the fall of 1894 a Phoenix newspaper man, R. E. L. Robinson, fell under the lure of the island's enchantment, though he had never seen it. He was a romantic writer, but cared very little for any basis of fact. When he left, he told the Associated Press man in Phoenix that he intended to disappear for about six months and to come forth thereafter with some won- derful stories of the Indians, with whom he proposed to make his residence. In the meantime, as he had no relatives for whom he cared, he wanted to be known as dead for that space of time and stated that word soon would come that he had been killed by Indians. Robinson had found a man at Yuma, who pro- vided a sloop and his companionship, and the two sailed away. In the course of a few weeks, as predicted, news came from Guaymas that Robinson was dead. The Phoenix newspaper men wisely nodded their heads and laughed, but, as later advices showed, Robinson really was dead. He had landed on Tiburon Island and had started into the interior, his companion staying behind on the beach to guard the boat. Very soon a shot was heard and Robinson came in sight, running, only to be overtaken and struck down by Indian pursuers. The boat- man promptly put out to sea and made the best possible speed down to Guaymas.
In the fall of 1905 was the next Arizona attempt upon the mysteries and supposed riches of Tiburon. It was led by Thos. F. Grindell, who had been principal of schools at Nogales, teacher in the Normal School at Tempe, sergeant in the Rough Riders and clerk of the Supreme Court of Arizona. He left Doug- las in company with J. E. Hoffman and two others, Rawlins and Ingraham. From Hermosillo was followed a Papago guide, who turned back a day's journey from the coast. The men were delayed in reaching the coast through the fact that the only water taken was in five-gallon oil cans, carried by slow-moving burros. They were already in straits for water when they arrived on the coast opposite the island and found themselves unable to cross the narrows. Trying to find a ranch of which Indians had told them, Rawlins pushed on ahead and was fol- lowed by Grindell. Ingraham wandered away, delirious from thirst. Hoffman, who later found, dead of thirst, one of the burros that Rawlins had taken, was the only survivor. With the aid of a teapot, he improvised a little still, in which he boiled sea water. Thus, keeping near the coast, he managed to provide enough water, finding sustenance mainly in shell fish, till picked up by Mexican fishing boats some distance north of Guaymas.
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
With very much less of melodrama, and with more of the features of comic opera, was a Tiburon Island expedition organized a few years ago by "Arizona Charlie" Meadows of Yuma, who proposed to conquer the golden island by the aid of both a fleet and a military force. This expedition died while still in the prospective stage, for the Mexican Government had doubts about permitting an alien force to make war upon Mexican Indians.
ARIZONA'S ONLY FEMALE SAINT
About fifteen years ago, the upper Gila Valley for several seasons was the abode of the only female saint ever popularly credited to the Southwest. She was Maria Teresa Urea, generally rated as the presiding priestess and practical ruler of the great Yaqui tribe and as such exiled from Mexico by order of the government. In fact she was a gentle, shrinking, modest maid about 24 years of age, of ordinary Mexican parentage, whose longest journey was that on horseback from Mexico. She avoided towns and in no wise sought to attract attention. Yet to her parents' adobe home flocked a multitude of Mexicans who called her Santa Teresa. A touch of her hand was believed a cure for every mortal evil and a prayer of intercession by her equivalent to a passport into paradise. She had serene confidence in her own divinely-given powers and never refused audience to the afflicted of whatever race. Under her hands, it is claimed, the blind saw and the lame threw away their crutches. She said she held her power through the favor of the Mother of Jesus and told of visions of scraphic forms. The girl uniformly refused compensation for the exercise of her seemingly supernatural powers, but it is told that her father inci- dentally acquired a considerable degree of wealth.
Santa Teresa left Clifton with her parents in August, 1900, for Los Angeles, Cal. She had been married a few days before to José Rodriguez, from whom she had been separated immediately after the wedding by an indiguant Mexican mob, which considered the wedding of a saint little short of sacrilege. The hus- band was detained by the authorities on a charge of insanity, while the bride went on to a lone honeymoon with her parents.
THE CLIFTON FOUNDLING CASE
Humanity served as the strongest argument sustaining a decision of the Supreme Court of Arizona on January 21, 1905, denying a petition for restitu- tion of seventeen children to the New York Foundling Asylum. The case was one of deep pathos. In the previous October, forty children were sent by the asylum to Clifton and Morenci, there to enter, on the representation of a tempo- rary parish priest, good Spanish families that were willing to adopt them. The sis- ters of the Catholic order who accompanied the children found that nearly all the claimants were Mexicans of the lowest order and almost immediately appre- ciated the error of the proceeding. In the meantime an organization of Ameri- can residents had formed and, though told that the assignment of the children was only temporary, seized about half of them and parcelled them out among themselves, the sisters regaining custody of the balance. The case was taken directly to the Supreme Court, before which evidence was presented. Represen- tatives of the asylum claimed they had never surrendered custody of the children. The defendants, embracing a number of the best people of Clifton, introduced
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NEW YORK FOUNDLING ASYLUM BABIES BROUGHT BEFORE THE ARIZONA SUPREME COURT, 1905
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
evidence showing that a number of the women who received children were of the lowest order, that others had drunken husbands and that all were bitterly poor. Some of the children, it was alleged, were put into houses where as many as seven people occupied a single room. Many of the clean and pretty children after a day's retention were filthy and destitute of proper clothing. In rebuttal it was shown that the children were seized while the sisters were absent in Morenci investigating the homes to which the children had been taken and that wherever the conditions were found improper the children had been taken away. The judgment of the court that the best interests of the children affected de- manded that they be left where they were, in the homes of well-to-do Americans, well qualified to assume their care and to rear them. In December, 1906, the Supreme Court of the United States sustained the Supreme Court of Arizona and the Legislature of Arizona at a succeeding session specifically sanctioned the adoption of the children affected.
ARIZONA CENSUS FIGURES
The first census ever made of Arizona was in 1860, really only of the settle- ments within the Gadsden purchase, with possibly an estimate of the· population of the white people along the Colorado River. It is not unlikely that within the estimate were included New Mexican settlements along the same southern line eastward as far as the Rio Grande, for the total secured was 2,421. It is prob- able that most of these were Mexicans. Until the advent of the California Column, Arizona, within its present boundaries, had even less than 600 inhabi- tants of Caucasian stock. Governor Goodwin, after assumption of office, had a census made that found 5,526 inhabitants, exclusive of Indians. This grew to 7,200 in 1867.
The population of Arizona in 1870, as given as found by the first official census, was 9,688, hardly equal to that of a sizable eastern town. The entire report is so short that it can be copied here in extenso:
Mohave County: Hardyville, population, 20; Mohave City, 159.
Pima County: Adamsville, 400; Apache Pass, 400; Calabasas, 62; Casa Blanca, 52; Cerro Colorado, 58; Crittenden Camp, 215; Florence, 218; Goodwin Camp, 200; Grant Camp, 340; Maricopa Wells, 68; Rillito, 32; Saguara, 71; San Pedro, 80; San Xavier, 118; Tubac, 178; Tucson, 3,224, of which 1,026 were rated as native and 2,198 as foreign.
Yavapai County: Big Bug and Lynx Creek, 96; Tollgate and Walnut Grove, 107; Chino and Lower Granite creeks, 80; Date, Kirkland and Skull creeks, 90; Peeple's Valley, etc., 45; Prescott, 668; Rio Verde, 174; Salt River Valley (including Phoenix), 240; Vulture works, 155; Vulture mine, 133; Walnut Grove, 40; Wickenburg, 174; Williamson Valley, 160.
Yuma County: Yuma, 1,144; Ehrenberg, 233; La Paz, 254.
In 1872 the county assessors reported the population of the territory as follows: Pima County, 3,652; Yavapai, 3,539; Yuma, 1,643; Maricopa, 1,156; Mohave, 753; making a total of 10,743. In 1875 there was another enumeration which seems to have shown either a tremendous influx or else carelessness in the previous count, for it totalled 30,114, divided in this wise: Yavapai, 13,661; Pima, 8,117; Maricopa, 3,702; Yuma, 2,212; Pinal, 1,602; Mohave 822.
The 1880 census showed : Apache, 5,283; Maricopa, 5.689; Mohave, 1,190; Pima, 17,006; Pinal, 3,004; Yavapai, 5,013; Yuma, 3,215; total, 40,440.
In 1890 the figures were: Apache, 4,281; Maricopa, 10,986; Mohave. 1.144;
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
Pima, 12,673; Pinal, 4,251; Yavapai, 8,685; Yuma, 2,671; Cochise. 6,838; Gila, 2,021; Graham, 5,670; total, 59,620.
In 1900 the total was 122,931, of which 26,480 were Indians. The county population in order follows: Apache, 8,297; Cochise, 9,251; Coconino, 5,514; Gila, 4,973; Graham, 14,162; Maricopa, 20,457; Mohave, 3,426; Navajo, 8,829; Pima, 14,689 ; Pinal, 7,779; Santa Cruz, 4,545; Yavapai, 13,799; Yuma, 4,145.
In 1910 there was keen gratification in a rise of the gross population to 204,- 354, in which the Indians numbered 29,201. The population by counties follows : Apache, 9,196; Cochise, 34,591; Coconino, 8,130; Gila, 16,348; Graham, 23,999 ; Maricopa, 34,488; Mohave, 3,773; Navajo, 11,471; Pima, 22,818; Pinal, 9,045 ; Santa Cruz, 6,766; Yavapai, 15,996; Yuma, 7,733.
Within the population of Arizona, the native-born at the last census nuni- bered 78,949. Those born in other states, 76,640. Foreign-born, 89,000. Among the states represented, Texas leads with 10,139, followed by California with 6,101 and Missouri with 5,206. Considering the foreign population, native Mexicans number 51,102, this embracing also the children of Mexican parentage ; English, 7,274, and Germans, 5,656; Ireland, 4,901, and Italy, 2,189. Negroes within the state number 2,009; Chinese, 1,305, and Japanese, 371. The total number of illiterates is 32,953, or 20.9 per cent. There should be hurried explanation, how- ever of this excessive percentage figure, for of the number 14,939 are Indians, among whom 72.9 per cent are classed as illiterate and 13,758 are foreign-born whites, mainly Mexican in origin. School children from six to twenty years, inclusive, number 58,897, of whom, despite the compulsory attendance law, only 30,355, or 53.4 per cent, actually attended school. These figures again are modi- fied by the fact that of the 7,658 foreign-born white children only 35.3 per cent attend school and of the 10,821 Indian children only 31.9 per cent.
The populations of the larger settlements of Arizona at the times of the last three census takings are set forth below :
1910
1900
1890
Bisbee
9,019
Chloride
275
465
Clifton
4,874
Douglas
6,437
Flagstaff
1,633
1,271
963
Florence
807
1,486
Globe
7,083
Jerome
2,393
2,861
250
Mesa
1,692
722
Nogales
3,514
1,761
1,194
Phoenix
11,134
5,544
3,152
Pima
500
521
750
Prescott
5,092
3,559
1,759
Safford
929
Tempe
1,473
885
Thatcher
904
644
320
Tombstone
1,582
646
1,875
Tucson
13,193
7,531
5,150
Wickenburg
570
Williams
1,267
Winslow
2,381
1,305
363
Yuma
2,914
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PRINCIPAL STREET OF DOUGLAS
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
THE COUNTIES OF THE STATE
The four original counties of Arizona are Yavapai, Mohave, Yuma and Pima. Of these only Yuma remains with its original boundaries. Mohave was changed on the formation of Pah Ute County, but had the area taken returned when Nevada was given that part of Arizona lying west of the Colorado River and later gained some territory eastward to Kanab Wash. Subjoined is a statement of material facts connected with the organization of the counties named :
Apache-Organized from part of Yavapai in 1879; part taken to form part of Graham in 1881; part taken to form Navajo in 1895.
Cochise-Organized from part of Pima in 1881.
Coconino-Organized from part of Yavapai in 1891.
Gila-Organized from parts of Maricopa and Pinal in 1881.
Graham-Organized from parts of Apache and Pima in 1881.
Greenlee-Organized from part of Graham County in 1909.
Maricopa-Organized from part of Yavapai in 1871; part of Pima annexed in 1873; parts taken to form part of Pinal in 1875, and part of Gila in 1881.
Navajo-Organized from part of Apache in 1895.
Pima-Part taken to form part of Pinal in 1875; parts annexed to Maricopa in 1873, and Pinal in 1877; parts taken to form Cochise and part of Graham in 1881 and Santa Cruz in 1899.
Pinal-Organized from parts of Maricopa, Pima and Yavapai in 1875; part of Pima annexed in 1877; part taken to form part of Gila in 1881.
Santa Cruz-Organized from part of Pima in 1899.
Yavapai-Parts taken to form Maricopa in 1871, Apache in 1879, Coconino in 1891; part of Pinal in 1875; parts of Gila in 1881 and later.
For a dozen years before statehood there was ever grave fear that Congress would accede to demands made by Utah for the cession to that state of all of Arizona lying north of the Colorado River. Utah sent at least one delegation down to argue the Arizona Legislature into an agreement with its views, but met with no degree of compliance, even when there was offered in return a strip of country in Southeastern Utah, lying south of the San Juan River. There have been various suggestions, legislative and otherwise, that Arizona should have a deep water port and that Congress be called upon to straighten out the southern line from Nogales westward, giving the territory frontage on the Gulf of Cali- fornia. It is to be noted also that a few years ago Southern California news- papers worked up some excitement in favoring a consolidation into one state of Arizona and Southern California.
WEALTH OF THE LAND
Owing to the variation of methods for the assessment of property, especially of mines and railroads, the true property wealth of Arizona hardly is shown with any degree of accuracy by the annual assesment returns. It is to be noted, how- ever, that ever since 1885 there has been an almost unbroken succession of addi- tions to the property valuations. In even dollars, this record is given below :
1885
$28,682,612
1890
28,050,234
1886.
23,207,918
1891.
28,279,466
1887.
26,253,506
1892.
27,923,162
1888
25,913,015
1893.
27,686,183
1889
27,057,460
1894.
27,059,974
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
1895
27,518,322
1906
62,227,633
1896.
28,047,176
1907
77,372,156
1897.
30,613,702
1908
80,637,741
1898.
31,473,540
1909
82,684,062
1899.
32,509,520
1910.
86,126,226
1900.
33,782,485
1911.
98,032,708
1901.
38,853,831
1912.
140,338,191
1902.
39,083,177
1913
375,862,414
1903.
43,088,040
1914.
407,267,393
1904.
44,967,434
1915
420,532,411
1905.
57,920,372
LEGAL HOLIDAYS
Arizona has eleven legal holidays during the year: New Year's Day, Admis- sion Day (February 14), Washington's birthday (February 22), Decoration Day (May 30), Independence Day (July 4), Columbus Day (October 12), Thanks- giving Day (when appointed), Christmas Day (December 25), general election day, primary election day and Labor Day. Two Arbor Days are proclaimed annually, respectively for Northern and Southern Arizona.
JEROME AFTER THE BIG FIRE
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CHAPTER XLVI IN THE NORTH AND WEST
Northwestern Arizona-Development Along the Little Colorado-Effect of Railroad Con- struction-Flagstaff's Observatory-Yuma and the River Towns-Yavapai's Growth-Conflagrations at Prescott and Jerome-The Dam Break at Walnut Grove.
The history of Northwestern Arizona almost entirely is the history of the mines of the locality and this record will be found in another chapter. There also has been made separate mention of Wm. H. Hardy, the pioneer of the north- ern Colorado Valley. Hardy was a great man in his day and is said to have come with a cash capital of $85,000. He had an idea that his Village of Hardy- ville not only was destined to be the center of a great mining field, but that, being at the head of navigation, from it would be transshipped the freight of Northern Arizona and of Southern Utah and Nevada. He fought the Indians steadfastly and there has remained a story that once he got out of a narrow hole at Wallapai Springs by feeding the redskins strychnined sugar. He built the road across Union Pass on a Government contract and thereafter got only half of his claim of $185,000. The county seat of government came to Kingman in 1887, after stays at Cerbat and Mineral Park. Kingman, named after Lewis Kingman, one of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad engineers, was established in 1881, well before the arrival of the rails. From mineral developments of the past few years it has become one of the most prosperous of Arizona towns, its industries helped by the building of a branch railroad to Chloride and by the establishment of a great power plant that furnishes electricity to the county's principal mining camps, as well as to the county seat itself.
SETTLEMENT ALONG THE LITTLE COLORADO
The upper Little Colorado had some settlement from Mexico early in the seventies, and in 1872 John Walker, a mail carrier, had built a cabin on the river five miles below St. Johns. Soon thereafter came on the scene Sol Barth, who for some years before had been packing salt from the Zuni salt lake and who knew the country well. He tells the story himself that he sat down to a little game of cards with some Mexican sheep men at El Badito (Vadito-little crossing), a very small settlement on the Little Colorado, and by superior knowledge of the game or by luck, managed to win several thousand head of sheep and a few thousand dollars. Then it was that Barth gave up the life of the road and settled down. A little later he established St. Johns. The name he gave himself, always being careful to explain, however, that it was simply Vol. 11-16
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
in compliment to the first female resident, Señora Maria San Juan de Padilla. November 16, 1879, he sold his farm of 1,200 acres to Ammon M. Tenny, for 770 cows furnished by the Mormon Church and considered worth $17,000. The following year a number of Mormons, under Jesse N. Smith and D. K. Udall, began the task of making St. Johns a real town.
The Mormons, who had failed on the same river further northward, saw possibilities in the mountain valleys of Eastern Arizona. The Stinson ranch on Silver Creek was purchased in July, 1878, by W. J. Flake for $11,000, mainly in cattle. Very logically, owing to the presence of another Mormon leader named Snow, the settlement was named Snowflake.
The first settler at the present Springerville was William Milligan, who established himself among the Mexicans at Valle Redondo (round valley) a little before Barth's settlement in the district. Springerville was named for an Albuquerque merchant, who never had residence in Arizona.
The Mormons with their usual industry have made both the Little Colorado and Silver Creek sections most productive, and now have within the two dis- tricts in Apache and Navajo counties not less than a score of settlements. They have prospered despite a number of most discouraging circumstances. Much of their land had to be bought twice, the second time when the railroad claimed its land grant. There were days when their homes had to be defended against outlaws, though Indian troubles rarely reached them. In the spring of 1915 floods washed out the Lyman dam a few miles south of St. Johns, built to sup- ply that section with irrigation water on a higher line than the old ditches. Several lives were lost and there was property damage approximating $200,000. The dam was of earth and had poor foundation.
Charlie Banta tells that he was the postmaster at El Badito, appointed in February, 1876, happening to have come over about that time from Camp Good- win when Postmaster William Mc Williams suddenly died. Banta opened a mail line from Tucson to Fort Goodwin and thence to Fort Apache and St. Johns, and claims also that it was he who named Springerville, though the settlement at that time was on the opposite side of the river from its present location.
DEVELOPMENT THAT CAME WITH THE RAILROAD
Whatever settlement there was in Northeastern Arizona along the thirty- fifth parallel before the coming of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad was con- fined to a few stations on the Beale Road, over which ran an intermittent sort of mail service, sometimes by mounted couriers and sometimes by buckboard stages that went through without stop other than for change of horses at such points as Chaves Pass, Horsehead Crossing and Sunset Pass. Carriers occasion- ally were killed by the Navajos or Apaches and the early-day snow storms caused long lapses in the mail deliveries. Weather conditions stopped through mail service for months before the building of the railroad west of Wingate. Jas. D. Houck in October, 1874, took up the mail contract between Fort Wingate and Prescott, when service seemed impossible on account of the Indians, and suc- ceeded where others had failed.
The Navajos were nasty along the railroad during the construction period. They killed one of the workmen, Gutierrez, on the grade near Navajo Springs. Before they had killed two drivers on the stage line near Horsehead Crossing.
MOHAVE COUNTY COURTHOUSE, KINGMAN
R
CURTIS SAWMILL, NEAR PRESCOTT, 1876
AYER'S SAWMILL, FLAGSTAFF, 1882 Cutting ties for the Santa Fe Railroad
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ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
(Holbrook), and another at Sunset Crossing. There seems to have been no record made of fatalities along the Santa Fé during the construction period. At least twenty must have been killed in the broils that were common around the tent doggeries that kept pace with the advance of the grade or rails. One desperado killed a man "just to see him kick;" the names of the interested parties seem to have been an immaterial item at the time. Robbery was common. In several camps the citizens rebelled against conditions and drove out the roughs.
The Santa Fé Railroad's records show that Holbrook was named in October, 1882, after Richard Holbrook, one of the locating engineers of the Atlantic and Pacific line. There is also record that it was a place surpassed in wickedness only by Dodge City. One of its first residents, before its naming, was Harry H. Scorse, who had walked down from Utah and who there was stopped by fear of the Apaches or he would have kept on south- ward. He came in 1878 and the next year started a store that he still owns. In 1882 he had a branch store at the Rogers ranch, on the site of Williams. Hol- brook today is a quiet village, with prosperity in its position as a forwarding and shipping point for a large district.
Winslow, also named after a railroad official, had early prosperity in the establishment of railroad shops, though agriculture later was added as a source of local income. The town was incorporated January 4, 1900, with E. A. Sawyer as mayor.
EARLY VISITORS TO FLAGSTAFF
The settlement of the lower valley of the Little Colorado, between Holbrook and Winslow, has been noted in the chapter covering the Mormon immigration. But in the same locality there was an earlier attempt, which seems to have been abandoned almost at once. The best record of this is found in Conklin's Picturesque America, published in 1878, in which is copied the following excerpt from some unspecified eastern publication :
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