USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 36
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Peace to a relative degree came to Tucson when Charles Meyer assumed the office of Alcalde or justice of the peace. He established a chain gang and stood by his own court procedure even when it happened to clash with the laws of the period.
The City of Tucson was incorporated by legislative enactment approved February 7, 1877, with provision for the election annually of a mayor, two coun- eilmen, recorder, treasurer, assessor, marshal and poundmaster.
CELEBRATING A RAILROAD'S ARRIVAL
It was a happy day when the iron horse came to Tucson, March 17, 1880. The enthusiasm was pent up till the 20th, when a formal reception was given a special trainload of high railroad officials and their friends. When the train drew in there was wild enthusiasm on the part of the populace and there was music by the Sixth Cavalry Band from Fort Lowell. Heading the party of Californians was Charles Crocker, president of the railroad. Also there were Superintendent James Gamble of the Western Union Telegraph Company, Chief Engineer George E. Gray, Division Superintendent E. E. Hewitt, Frank M. Pixley, editor of the San Francisco Argonaut, and Major Ben Truman, a noted coast journalist. The citizens had an elaborate reception organization, with no less than nine committees. There was an address of welcome from our old friend, Col. W. S. Oury. Then Oury's old associate in Indian warfare, Don Estevan Ochoa, presented to President Crocker a silver spike, a timely gift, made by Superintendent Dick Gird of the Tombstone Mill and Mining Company of bullion from the Tough Nut mine.
The main function, however, was a banquet held at Levin's park, at the foot of Pennington Street. Mayor R. N. Leatherwood presided, but turned the office of toastmaster over to Col. Chas. D. Poston, who made the formal speech of- welcome. The other speeches listed in the Tucson Star were by Col. Ben Morgan, Gen. E. A. Carr, Hugh Farley, F. H. Goodwin, Professor Cox, Roland M. Squire, Mexican Consul Manuel Prieto, Carlos Velasco, Thomas Fitch, Frank M. Pix- ley, Chief Justice French and William Oury.
On the date of the arrival of the railroad, Mayor Robt. N. Leatherwood, in his official capacity sent out a number of telegrams, to the President of the United States, to Governor Frémont and the mayors of several coast cities. In this connection Leatherwood accepted a suggestion to advise the Pope that Tuc- son at last had been connected by bands of steel with the outside world. At the banquet an alleged reply was read, about as follows :
His Holiness the Pope acknowledges with appreciation receipt of your telegram informing him that the ancient city of Tucson at last has been connected by rail with the outside world and sends his benediction, but for his own satisfaction would ask, where in hell is Tucson? (Signed) ANTONELLI.
Tom Fitch acknowledges some responsibility for the almost blasphemous re- ply and in a late letter states that "Hugh Farley, W. H. Horton and I forged the message and suborned a telegraph messenger to carry it to Bob."
The accuracy of this pioneer understanding is disputed, however, by Dr. M. P. Freeman of Tucson, who is of the opinion that the dispatch to the Pope was
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written in good faith by none other than Charles D. Poston, who at the time originated the expression, so well known, of "Ancient and Honorable Pueblo." According to Doctor Freeman, the text of the telegram was as follows:
Tucson, Arizona, March 17, 1880.
To His Holiness, the Pope of Rome, Italy. The mayor of Tucson begs the honor of reminding Your Holiness that this ancient and honorable pueblo was founded by the Spaniards under the sanction of the church more than three centuries ago, and to inform Your Holiness that a railroad from San Francisco, California, now connects us with the Christian world. R. N. Leatherwood, mayor. Asking your benediction, J. B. Salpointe, Vic. Ap.
A very material point is that it was taken to Bishop J. P. Salpointe, who added his signature, asking the benediction of the Pope. According to this ac- count, nothing in the least disrespectful was sent or intended, though it is not known whether the message was dispatched or whether a real answer was returned.
Another special train came May 6, bearing a group of Southern Pacific offi- cials, including Assistant General Superintendent E. C. Fellows, General Freight Agent J. C. Stubbs, and Chief Engineer S. S. Montague. The party returned from the front in the evening and, according to the Star, then "were greeted by many of our best citizens." According to Stubbs, who in later years became traffic manager of all the Harriman lines, that evening's entertainment was to be remembered with awe, for he told that so fast was the champagne consumed the waiters were instructed to pour it out in buckets.
About this time Tucson was enjoying large prosperity, being the forwarding point and market place for the great mining discovery at Tombstone, as well as for scores of other lively mining camps that then were scattered all over Southern Arizona. The trade with Sonora was so large that Mexican silver dollars were the basis of mercantile exchange and at that time had not descended below the general value of 90 cents in American currency. Never was there such gambling known in Arizona, and prosperity was at its highest tide.
THE HANDY-HENEY AFFAIR
September 24, 1891, occurred an incident that in years later was given even greater publicity than at the time. It was the killing of Dr. J. C. Handy by Frank Heney, a young lawyer, who later attained prominence as a prosecutor in Cali- fornia, especially in connection wtih graft investigations in the northern part of the state and in bribery trials that tarred practically all the civic administration of San Francisco. Heney in 1891, already very much involved in democratic politics and already showing the aggressiveness that later led to high success at the bar, had taken the case for the defense in a divorce suit filed by Handy against his wife. The doctor's ante-morten statement was to the effect that Heney had rushed from his office and had thrust a revolver against Handy's body and fired. Though Handy had a revolver it was not drawn. About the only near witness was Heney's stenographer. Heney claimed that Handy had abused him for months because of his protection of Mrs. Handy, even after the verdict had been given against Heney's client and Handy had secured possession of his five children, and swore also that at the time of the encounter Handy was the aggressor and had cursed him and tried to seize him before Heney's shot was
William C. Greene
Judge Charles H. Meyer
Thomas Gates
PROMINENT MEN OF SOUTHERN ARIZONA
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fired. Heney was discharged on preliminary examination and still later an in- dictment against him was refused by a grand jury.
TUCSON ITEMS OF GENERAL INTEREST
Early in 1900 the military plaza in Tucson was "jumped" by a number of squatters headed by Dr. George Martin, who claimed that the city had never been granted the land. The courts finally decided in favor of the municipality and the squatters were ejected.
In August, 1900, Tucson purchased the local water service system for $110,000.
In its earlier days Congress Street, the main thoroughfare of the city, was narrow and inadequate. In 1902 it was widened by the razing of a long block of low adobe buildings that lay within what was called the wedge.
The worst casualty ever known in the annals of southwestern transportation was the train wreck at Esmond station near Tucson in February, 1903, with more than a score of passengers killed. Two heavy trains, running at high speed, crashed into each other, the locomotives crumpling like cardboard and the blazing oil tanks sending a fiery stream down the roadbed. More than a score of pas- sengers were killed, nearly all of them in the forward coaches, from which eighteen charred bodies later were taken. The blame was laid on a young oper- ator at Vail station, who had failed to deliver an order.
The Old Pueblo Club, the city's principal social organization, in June, 1908, occupied its handsome clubhouse, built and furnished at a cost of nearly $80,000.
Following the discharge of a number of trainmen for various canses, in June, 1909, the home of Division Superintendent Whalen of the Southern Pacific Railroad was almost destroyed by an explosion of dynamite in the early morn- ing. After the dynamiting, four attempts were made to fire the railroad shops. Colonel Randolph and Superintendent Whalen sharply called the community in general to account in a statement that it seemed almost impossible for the South- ern Pacific to get a conviction in the county for crimes against its property. So the business men of Tucson at once formed a good-government league for the suppression of anarchy.
In the fall of 1909 the city council took extraordinary action in requesting Mayor Ben Heney to resign, following a long-drawn-out quarrel with the city council over charges made by the mayor against the city marshal.
May 5 is a holiday in Mexico. On that day in 1862 the French were defeated by General Zaragosa at Puebla. The date therefore was deemed most appro- priate for a celebration, 1910, on the opening of the railroad entering Tucson from Nogales and thus connecting it with Sonora and the west coast of Mexico.
Another joyful occasion of the same sort was the greeting extended to the El Paso and Southwestern System when it entered Tucson in November, 1912.
Tucson had subscribed about $60,000 towards the purchase of a right of way and station grounds for the Southwestern, but the railroad company, an annex of the great Phelps-Dodge corporation, showed a large spirit of generosity, after reaching Tucson in returning the money to the committee that had raised it, Manager Walter Douglas suggesting that it might served as a nucleus for a building for the use of the Young Men's Christian Association. This suggestion
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was accepted and as a result in December, 1914, on a site once occupied by a gambling palace, was opened a Y. M. C. A. building that had cost $100,000.
In the past year Tucson has been trying the experiment of civic operation under a city manager. Though only general permission could be found in the city charter for such a step, a manager was appointed in the person of C. K. Clark, a railroad construction engineer. This action was taken by a new city administration headed by former Postmaster J. Knox Corbett.
Tucson is a notably strong city financially. Her banking in pioneer days mainly was done by the firm of Lord & Williams. In January, 1879, the Pima County Bank was opened by Tully & Jacobs Bros.
TOMBSTONE, PAST AND PRESENT
The story of the beginnings of Tombstone and of the rougher features that accompanied its "boom" days will be found on other pages. The camp had only about ten years of active life and only half of those years were eventful. Then came a period of rejuvenation, when the Murphy-Gage interests tried to conquer the flow of underground water and now is being experienced a third stage of prosperity, backed by the large, though conservative, mining operations of the Phelps-Dodge Company.
The first settlement was at Watervale, a couple of miles distant from the Tough Nut mines; Tombstone itself was not much of a place when first seen in October, 1879, by Judge Duncan, when he came up from Watervale just in time to see a man murdered. The deed seemed to be taken with indifference by the community, in which bloodshed was common. Then the settlement comprised forty house tents and cabins, possibly with a population of 100. Mike Gray offered the visitor lots on Allen Street for $5 each. "Pie" Allen had a store at Fourth and Allen and Landlord Bilicke, who in after years built the Alexandria Hotel in Los Angeles, had erected the Cosmopolitan Hotel, the most imposing building in the camp.
A year thereafter the camp had about 1,000 residents, the population rising soon to about 14,000, according to one estimate. Its newspaper history, elsewhere related, had many entertaining features. Next to mining, the principal industry without doubt was gambling. Drinking saloons took up most of the space on the business streets. Fourteen faro banks never closed.
In 1881 no less than 110 liquor licenses were paid in Tombstone. This did not exactly mean open saloons, for liquor was sold in almost any mercantile establishment in those days. Over the collection of the county liquor and mer- cantile licenses there was a deal of scandal. One old-timer said, with emphasis, that he was sure that as much as $200,000 disappeared during the boom period of the camp, and he wouldn't take one red cent from the amount. But little was cared, for the whole tendency of the times was happy-go-lucky. All that money was made for was to spend. According to Judge Duncan, the financial muddle the county soon fell into was more or less due to the business incapacity of the supervisors.
In its earlier days, Tombstone was embraced within Pima County. In 1881. County Recorder W. S. Carpenter at Tucson was understood to be making money at the rate of about $3,000 a week mainly from mining fees from Tombstone, which at times sent down as many as 100 locations a day. In those happy days
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all fees went to the officials. Sheriff R. H. Paul had an office about as lucrative, but both Carpenter and Paul died poor.
Cochise County was organized by the Territorial Legislature of 1881, despite strong objection from Tucson. The name should have been "Cachise," but the bill was otherwise engrossed and the measure had passed under such circum- stances, of moral and other kinds of suasion, largely financial, that its backers consoled themselves with the thought that nobody knew how to spell an Indian name anyway, and let the error pass.
The first session of court was May 9, 1881, with Judge W. H. Stillwell pre- siding and the first business transacted was the admission of Marcus A. Smith to practice as an attorney.
Tombstone was incorporated about the same time she became a county seat. There were disastrous fires in 1881 and 1882, but soon an ample supply of water was piped in from the Huachuca Mountains, securing against recurrence of such disasters.
When the Grand Central and Contention hoists burned and water flooded the lower workings of the mines, Tombstone began to disintegrate. Her popula- tion drifted to other camps and nine-tenths of her buildings were deserted. Property values became almost nil. Hundreds of the frame houses were torn down, their material going to nearby camps, such as Pearce. Such experiences frequently have been known in Nevada, but rarely in Arizona.
When Bryan made his first race for the presidency, Mayor A. Wentworth of Tombstone made a vow that he would not have his hair cut till Bryan sat in the White House. The election of Wilson sufficed, however, and Wentworth thereafter was a patron of barber shops.
BISBEE'S CURRENT HISTORY
Bisbee as a town started in the summer of 1880, when the Board of Super- visors of Pima County appointed Jas. F. Duncan justice of the peace and William Fenton constable. A postoffice was established September 7 of the same year, with Horace C. Stillman as postmaster. The camp had been named after Judge De Witt Bisbee, father-in-law of John Williams, one of the three Williams broth- ers, and a member of the San Francisco mining firm of Bisbee, Williams & Com- pany. The first election held was on November 2, 1880, and in December Judge Duncan performed his first marriage ceremony, incidentally the first in the camp, that of Benjamin Morgan and Miss Jessie Dunton. In 1881 the Warren Mining District was formed, with Horace Stillman as secretary.
About the time that Bisbee was established with many miners from the Comstock and California points, there was much anti-Chinese agitation along the coast. This prejudice was brought by the men to Arizona and so in the early days of the camp a rule was established that no Chinese might remain over night. To this day, darkness is never supposed to overtake a Chinese vegetable peddler or wash man within the city limits of Bisbee. Of course, any enforcement of the regulation would have no legal sanction, but it has proved effective, just the same.
In 1906 an attack was made upon the surface holdings, a considerable part of the townsite claimed by Martin O'Hare and others under mineral filings.
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A decision was made against the claimants in the general land office and later by the secretary of the interior.
Growing out of labor union troubles, the office of the Bisbee Review in August, 1909, was invaded by a former employee, W. A. Pffankuch, who appar- ently had intention of slaying every workman therein. The first task of the murderer was to kill two linotype operators, Asa T. Hoy and William Bockholt. When the assassin had exhausted the contents of his revolver, he was captured and taken to Tombstone in order to avoid a probable lynching. When tried, there developed an apparent mental deficiency and the assassin's neck was saved.
Street car communication was established from the business section of Bis- bee to the suburbs of Warren in March, 1908.
In October, 1908, Bisbee suffered a destructive fire with a gross loss of $500,- 000 and insurance of two-fifths of that amount. The flames swept the business section, its progress almost unchecked owing to the lack of a proper water sup- ply. Finally the fire was stopped at the edge of a broad space that had been cleared by dynamite.
The main business streets of Bisbee were laid out at the bottom of Tombstone Cañon and Brewery Gulch, which join at the old smelter site, into Mule Pass. Though the water-shed above is not a large one, on a number of occasions rather serious floods have menaced the lower parts of the city. Early in the history of the camp a substantial wooden gate was built near the head of the business section in Tombstone Cañon, to be closed in time of flood and thus deflect storm waters from the main street. A wooden viaduct was built to the eastward of the main street and later a much more substantial ''subway" carried the flood along the base of the steep hills to the westward. A statement of the minor floods that have caused inconvenience and some loss would be a recapitulation of events of the wet years. In the early days these floods almost were welcome, for they scoured the hillsides and carried away the old cans and refuse that at times had disagreeable prominence in the local landscape. In a flood in the summer of 1908 there swept down thousands of tons of earth from the western hillside, a part of the debris bursting into the local postoffice, burying fixtures and mail many feet deep.
RIOTS AT CANANEA
Bisbee was deeply concerned early in June, 1906, over trouble at Cananea that involved danger to hundreds of Americans, many of them prior residents of Arizona towns along the border. Several thousand Mexican miners, led by political agitators, struck for higher wages and terrorized the camp. A moh of 1,000 marched down from Ronquillo, the smelter town, to the American settle- ment on the mesa and killed the Metcalf brothers, managers of the company lumber yards, thereafter firing the stored timber. Though Superintendent Kirk had hundreds of well-armed Americans in Cananea, a force of 270 Ameri- cans, nearly all from Bisbee, went to the rescue, headed by Captain Rynning of the Arizona Rangers. At Naco the Americans had a little encounter with Mexicans across the line, wholly due to misapprehension, resulting in several Mexican casualties and in the wounding of an officer of the Bisbee Y. M. C. A. The Americans were met at the line by Governor Ysabal, who invited them
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY COURTHOUSE, NOGALES
The dome is decorated with Arizona virgin gold. of which considerable quantities have been found in the vicinity of Nogales
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across "as individuals," on this ground later defending his action before the Mexican national authorities. It is not improbable that his action is wholly due to the fact that the Americans would have come over anyhow, invited or not. They proceeded to Cananea where conditions were found not nearly as serious as had been reported and returned within a few hours, without firing a shot.
Only five Americans were killed at Cananea in the fighting, but the casualties were heavy on the Mexican side. Governor Ysabal reported the names of twenty- three Mexicans who had died, but it is claimed that no less than twenty-six were killed in a single charge made by the Mexicans on a hillside where 100 Ameri- can miners had intrenched themselves. General Luis Torres and Colonel Koster- litsky were promptly on the ground with rurales and troops and shared in the forced pacification of the camp.
A CITY OF QUICKEST GROWTH
At Douglas the first townsite location was made in August, 1900, by Alfred Paul, Park Whitney, C. A. Overlock and J. A. Brock, who had had information that several Phelps-Dodge representatives had been looking over the ground, apparently determining upon a location for the long-projected Copper Queen smelter. This information proved true, and the quartet beat the Phelps-Dodge Company in the race to the land office. The location first was homesteaded and later paid for with land scrip. All interests afterwards were conjoined in the International Land & Improvement Company. Lots went on the market in March, 1901, a couple of months after the Arizona Southeastern Railroad came. The branch to Nacozari was started about the same time. The postoffice was established that summer, with Overlock as postmaster, he represented, how- ever, by Renwick White, who struggled through the first years of the marvelous growth of the town. Business lots at first sold for from $150 to $300; now are worth up to $15,000. The town was incorporated in 1904, with Overlock as mayor.
On the whole Douglas has had a rather peaceful existence, latterly broken hy the border troubles of the Mexicans, wherein bullets for days were showered across the line and where Mexican battles, seen through field glasses, furnished a dangerous diversion for the American populace.
Willcox, which started as a cattle shipping point and as the forwarding station for Fort Grant and Globe, now ranks as an agricultural center, fed hy the products of hundreds of land holdings in the Sulphur Springs Valley, a district favored by plentiful underground water. A reward offered by the Legislature of 1875 for the first artesian well was paid in 1883 to W. J. Sander- son of Sulphur Springs Valley, who found flowing water at slight depth. Even a better artesian development has been made at San Simon, near the New Mexi- can line, where the wells are much deeper. The San Pedro Valley of Cochise County was cultivated around Spanish haciendas many years ago and had perma- nent American settlement as early as 1865. Latterly the valley above Benson has been peopled mainly by industrious Mormon farmers. Bowie, near the old Fort Bowie, at first was a small Mexican settlement, said to have borne the name of Tres Cebollas (Three Onions), following the first trade made on the site of the village, now the junction point of the Glohe branch of the Southern Pacific. Naco, on the border, forwarding point for Cananea, was not named after Vol. II-18
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Nacozari, as would seem apparent. The name is a combination of the last two letters in the words "Arizona" and "Mexico."
In 1909 there was general expectation that in the Courtland-Gleeson district was about to arise a second Bisbee. With this impression the Southern Pacific and the El Paso & Southwestern systems both made haste to enter Courtland, the former from Cochise on the north and the latter from Douglas. There was the usual clash of conflicting railroad interests with regard to rights-of-way and crossings. Courtland had two townsites and boomed for a while in a manner pleasing to real estate dealers, but eventually declined with the mines. The two railroads, with Pearce as the only important point on either line, now serve principally as a shortcut connection between the main lines of the rival systems. At the start, in February, 1909, Courtland was a lively place and at the town- site lot sale the line of would-be purchasers was several blocks long and in it leading places were sold for as high as $200. Some within the line had stood all night. Two local newspapers were distributed on the day of the sale. The first Sabbath of the new town was celebrated by a terrific gale that blew down most of the tents and sheet-iron structures that had been erected.
NOGALES ON THE BORDER
Nogales as a town is a comparatively late settlement, dating back only to about October, 1882, to about the time of the arrival of the New Mexico & Ari- zona Railroad, built from Benson southwest. The railroad company intended to have its division terminus at Calabasas, a few miles northward, but the Mexican government decreed that all trains should start at the international boundary. So the railroad, a Santa Fé annex, perforce had to move its division terminus to the line.
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