USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 37
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There was a town on the line when the railroad came. It comprised two rows of tents and had been named Isaacville, after the keeper of one of the saloons. There were rough days around the time of construction, with a population that contained desperadoes from both sides of the line in rather undue proportion. Sentiment changed when tents were displaced by good buildings and the rough element disappeared. When Nogales was founded it was under a clouded title, its land claimed as a part of the Camou-Elias land grant. It was later shown by Engineer Henry O. Flipper, an expert on Spanish titles, that this grant did not come as far south as the international line and in 1896 a Supreme Court decision found the Camou claims invalid. So the title doubly was made good and Mayor Overton, as trustee, soon was able to issue deeds.
Capt. L. W. Mix, later the honored mayor of the town, was one of the very first residents. His first visit was in October, 1882, while en route from San Francisco to Sonora. The Sonora Railroad had been built from Guaymas north- ward almost as far as Nogales and from the north the Benson road had been completed to the line. The engineer in charge of the construction work of the Sonora road was Thos. J. Morley, whose name now is borne by the principal business street of Nogales. Mrs. Morley drove the final spike, one of silver, October 29. At that time the border town was only a camp; the railroad station was a box car. There was one adobe building at the very edge of the territorial line, built by D. Snyder. All other buildings were either frame "shacks" or
INTERNATIONAL LINE AT NOGALES Boundary line between United States and Mexico
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tents. The town grew fast as soon as it was understood that it was to he a division point.
One of the early buildings was that erected by John T. Brickwood, along the international line. When the final boundary survey was made by a joint American-Mexican army party, it became necessary to cut a niche in the south wall of Brickwood's structure to permit placing of a line monument. Several times thereafter, fugitives chased by Mexican police found sanctuary in this same niche, though with only a blank wall behind them.
Brickwood had an international sort of business house. His bar was in Ari- zona, but all cigars were sold in Mexico. Across the sidewalk to the southward, on an awning post, was a large locker. When a customer wanted a cigar or a few cigars, he and the barkeeper stepped out of the south door into Mexico, where the cigars were sold and the payment of tariff thus avoided. Later this happy custom had to be eliminated, for a clear space sixty feet from the inter- national line was opened through the town at the instance of both governments, to discourage smuggling.
Arizona was made a separate customs district in 1892, with headquarters at Nogales, under George Christ, collector. The office of collector of customs at Nogales has had an unhappy history. Several collectors were dropped under charges, while Collectors Doan and McCord died in office. McCord was suc- ceeded by Con O'Keefe, a well-known Arizonan, who held office until succeeded in the latest democratie administration by Chas. E. Hardy.
Con O'Keefe in early days was a prospector and then a storekeeper, until he amassed wealth through the sale of mines. Of O'Keefe old timers love to tell that he was the only man ever known who succeeded in "deadheading" live stock on an Arizona railroad. O'Keefe and a partner, on their way to Jerome, wanted to get from Benson to Maricopa without making the journey on foot. Cash they had none and they were further handicapped by the possession of a burro, one most highly esteemed by both. So they found an empty freight car on an eastbound train and into it introduced not only themselves but the burro. They were discovered somewhere west of Tucson by a train crew that could take a joke. As a result, the trio rode through to Maricopa, where the trainmen helped in building a little bridge of railroad ties, that the hurro might safely be landed.
An ugly bank failure was that of the Nogales International Bank in January, 1904. Though the receiver found that $200,000 had been deposited, mainly by local residents, in the vaults were only $40 in American money and $396 in Mexican money. The greater part of the money appeared to have been loaned to officers of the bank who had screened themselves by the organization of other companies, which appeared as debtors. The items chargeable to the management aggregated $117,773. There was intense excitement within the town over the report of the looting and three of the officials were placed in jail for a time. John Dessart, president of the bank, was adjudged insane and transferred to the territorial asylum at Phoenix. Cashier Swain, released on bonds, fled to South America.
WARLIKE CONDITIONS ON THE LINE
Nogales ever since her establishment has realized much profit from her posi- tion on the border, which gave her exceptional advantages for trade with the
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rich Mexican State of Sonora. Business was sadly disturbed, however, at the beginning of the revolution that followed the deposition of President Porfirio Diaz. Several times Mexican revolutionary factions carried the war into the very streets of the Mexican Town of Nogales, with bullets whistling far over into the northern settlement.
Nogales again saw warlike conditions, the culmination of a period of disorder that had continued on the Mexican side through the years from 1911 to 1916. The town was one of the important border points to be garrisoned by the United States, which at times had as many as 4.000 soldiery there stationed. The cul- minating scenes. in so far as they affected Nogales, have been described by Mr. Bracy Curtis, a Nogales banker :
Many incidents occurred to disturb the peace and to endanger the lives of the inhabitants near the line. Necessity for a demand that the United States boundary territory be respected came on November 26, 1915, about 10 o'clock a. m. when Col. Wm. H. Sage, in command of the Twelfth U. S. Infantry, gave the order to return the fire of Villa soldiers who were just about to evacuate Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
The efficiency, courage and discipline of the United States army was a marvel to civilians. Privates were ordered to take prone positions on International Street, facing Mexico, ready for action, awaiting the offensive from the Mexican side of the line. Col. Wm. H. Sage and his officers unflinchingly remained in a standing position back of their men, giving commands and instructing the men to pick only those firing or attempting to fire on Americans from Mexico, and to take due care to shoot no bystanders nor noncombatants, while American sharpshooters were placed on building tors on the lookout for snipers.
A vigorous fire continued for about thirty minutes. The American army demonstrated wonderful marksmanship, for not a single noncombatant, woman or child on the Mexican side of the line had been shot.
One remarkable incident was in the ease of a Villa officer. He was with two women, apparently members of his family, who were using every effort to prevent him from shooting, but in the struggle he succeeded in raising his rifle to his shoulder and fired the signal shot and his comrades continued the fire. Some American sol liers dropped him immediately. The two women by his side remained uninjured, and this same care and accuracy followed through the whole battle. During the heaviest of the fire the Carranza-Obregon forces, opposing the Villa faction, appeared from the east and west from over the hills surrounding Nogales, Sonora. Those coming from the west. not recognizing the American soldiers, opened fire on them, killing one and wounding two. The fire was returned with heavy effect, but as soon as the mistake was discovered firing ceased. Gen. Obregon and Col. Sage met on the inter- national line and proper apologies and salutations were extended. Since then all has been peaceful on the line.
As a result of the fire returned by the Villistas soldiers, Private Stephen Little of Company L, Twelfth Infantry, whose home was in Fairmont, N. C., was killed, and two men were wounded. The death toll on the Mexican side was estimated from seventy-five to one hundred. The sequence was that the Villistas, who have cast slurs and insults at the President of the United States, the United States army and Americans in general, were taught to have a wholesome respect for the United States army and United States citizenship.
ASPIRATIONS OF CALABASAS
Calabasas in 1864 was found by Browne "a fine old ranch" abandoned by Señor Gandara, a former governor of Sonora, who was met by Browne and Poston on their journey into Arizona. He had a small party. mounted on mules and burrcs, and was making his way to California. almost destitute, driven out by an adverse political faction. The Calabasas ranch about that time was occupied by a stout-hearted frontiersman, James Pennington, with a family of five sons and daughters, who helped their father, rifle in hand, to guard their
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Ready to fight fire Deadly American bullets
Deployed against Villistas Twelfth Infantry Camp
Funeral of a soldier killed in action NOGALES IN WAR TIME-1915
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homestead and their fields against the frequent incursions of the Apaches. Pen- nington stubbornly refused to leave the country-said he had as much right to it as the infernal Indians and said he would live there in spite of all the devils out of hell. One of the daughters, Mrs. Page, lived after an experience in which she was the only survivor of a party ambushed by Indians, finally rescued by whites after sixteen days of hiding in the hills, subsisting on roots and berries. Pennington moved to Tucson where one of the principal streets later was named after him. Browne describes him as a man eccentric, yet of excellent sense, large and tall, with a large face and athletic frame. He and a son were killed by Apaches near Crittenden in 1869.
Calabasas originally was a Mexican military post with well-built houses of stone and adobe. In 1856-57 it was occupied for about a year by a squadron of the First Dragoons under Major Steen. Fort Mason, of Civil War days, was a short distance south of Calabasas.
About the time of the railroad's coming, Calabasas had great hopes. What was considered a large hotel was erected, a townsite was laid off and advertis- ing matter was scattered far and wide. Especially is remembered an elaborate pamphlet on which was an illustration of the townsite of Calabasas, filled with large business blocks, where in reality only was a brushwood thicket. At the foot of the slope flowed a lordly river, the Santa Cruz, bearing majestic steamboats upon its tide. It is to be noted also that the prospectus indicated that the river outlined upon the map flowed southward into the Gulf of California, instead of the northward to sink into desert sands. The boom of Calabasas was short-lived and Nogales (Sp .- walnuts) sprang into being near the site of the old Spanish rancho and presidio of Los Nogales.
GLOBE AND MIAMI EXPERIENCES
The first white settlement of Gila County was a tent colony of miners at the Ramboz silver claims, ten miles north of Globe. It cost 25 cents for each letter brought up from San Carlos by Indian runners, to be delivered from a volunteer sort of postoffice.
The first house in Globe was built in the summer of 1876 of adobe, by Robert Metcalfe and Chas. M. Shannon, who are better known in the Clifton country. There their names are preserved in the Town of Metcalfe and in the nearby Shannon Hill, wherefrom the Shannon Mining Company draws its ore. Dr. T. C. Stallo had the first store, in a tent near the hangman's tree, but the first real merchandising establishment of the camp was started in the early fall in the Metcalfe-Shannon house by A. M. Pierce. "Billy" Ransom, still a resident of the camp, tells a story that the early merchants, lacking authority for the sale of liquor, evolved a scheme for selling potatoes at a dollar apiece. To the purchaser of two went a flask of whiskey as a gift. But saloons never were long coming in an Arizona mining camp.
Among the early business men were S. Klein, J. J. Vosburg, Morrill & Ketchum (later succeeded by E. F. Kellner), W. S. Duryea, D. J. Webster, W. Fred Westmeyer, G. S. Van Wagenen, Harley Hitchcock, E. O. Kennedy, Jack Eaton and Alonzo Bailey (the firm of Eaton & Bailey now is the Old Dominion Commercial Company), Dr. S. C. Heineman, B. G. Fox, Al Kinney, M. W. Bremen, Dave Henderson and the Pascoe brothers.
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"Jerry" Vosburg, later express agent and now a Los Angeles capitalist, was the first postmaster, with his office in Klein's store. By 1881 a schoolhouse had been built in the southern part of the camp, placed in charge of a highly-edu- cated, typical Irishman named McGinnis, who enforced discipline with a heavy hand. Elsewhere in this volume will be found details of the camp's Indian ex- periences and of the lynching of 1882, while its mines have been given separate mention.
Globe's first editor, Judge Aaron H. Hackney, died in December, 1899. For twenty years he had not been beyond the town limits of Globe and since 1857 he had been on the frontier, most of the time in Southern New Mexico, where he long was associated in business with Stephen J. Elkins. In the fall of 1899 Judge Hackney had retired, at the age of 84, from his management of the Silver Belt.
Globe was regularly incorporated in May, 1900, though there had been organ- ization before that date. In the mayor's chair was placed Geo. W. P. Hunt, already thrice representative of his county in the Territorial Legislature and later to occupy the high position of first governor of the State of Arizona.
June 9, 1894, Globe was swept by a fire that wiped out almost every business house along the main street. In July, 1901, again was a destructive fire, after the fire department had disbanded for lack of support and following a temporary disincorporation of the town.
In August, 1904, a cloudburst swept Pinal Creek and did much damage, six residents being drowned at a point where the water was backed up by the slag dump of the Old Dominion Company. A number of buildings were floated down the torrential stream and much of the Gila Valley Railroad grade was torn away.
Early in the '90s Globe had much labor trouble. A body of miners marched to the office of Superintendent Parnall of the Old Dominion Company and threat- ened to hang him unless he rescinded some small administrative regulation. Parnall resigned soon after, stating that his position had no further interest when he found he had about 400 superiors. There was a deal of boycotting also and everybody found with a copy of the local newspaper was fined $2.50 a week. The troubles continued for a number of years. One bright light was the action of Sheriff J. H. Thompson ("Rim Rock"), who stopped a socialist procession on the main street and at the point of a revolver compelled the elimination of a red flag. As a general result, the Old Dominion Copper Company closed down its mines on several occasions merely in order to demonstrate its own right to handle its own property. Globe for most of its history has been a stronghold of the miners' union. This organization in 1901 was especially interested in push- ing an eight-hour bill in the Legislature wherein a Globe representative was Wm. H. Beard, who failed to vote for the measure. Beard on his return was seized by his neighbors and ridden out of town on a rail. When released he secured a brace of revolvers and then proceeded to march down the main street, in pic- turesque language defying the community.
The Old Dominion mine closed down in the latter part of January, 1909, following the action of a walking delegate who entered the shaft house and pulled a non-union miner from the cage as it was about to drop with him to his station. The other large mines of the camp joined in a silent protest and about 2000 men were paid off. The matter was a most serious one, for within the town the mer-
GILA COUNTY COURTHOUSE, GLOBE
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chants had feared just such a result. The walking delegate finally was sent out of camp, an action considered as sustaining the views held by the mining com- panies, who thereupon resumed work.
In January of 1915, at Miami, about 1600 miners and building trades em- ployees of three corporations went on strike. The trouble was of short duration, the men going back on assurance that wages would be raised in the near future. This was done about the same time that a general raise of wages was made by the copper producing corporations of Arizona, on the basis of a rise in the value of their product.
The Miami townsite was purchased in November, 1908, by Cleve W. Van- Dyke, who had come from laying out the townsite of Warren, near Bisbee, and the building of the Warren electric railway. He sold a lot in December to John H. Fitzpatrick, though the formal opening of the townsite did not occur till October 11, 1909. Fitzpatrick built the first house of the new town, of concrete, for which the water used in construction had to be hauled from miles away and cost 50 cents a barrel.
CHAPTER XLIX SOUTHERN ARIZONA PIONEERS
Chas. D. Poston-Wm. H. Kirkland-Peter R. Brady-Fritz Contzen-Estevan Ochoa -Samuel Hughes-Thomas Hughes-L. C. Hughes-S. R. DeLong-J. B. Allen -Fred G. Hughes-C. B. Stocking-R. N. Leatherwood-S. H. Drachman-E. N. Fish-1. S. Mansfeld-W. C. Greene-Col. Kosterlitsky-Pauline Cushman- . Pioneer Society.
Within the third volume of this work will be found a wealth of biography, from which can be learned much more of the personal features of life in Arizona within the past forty years than has been set forth in preceding pages. It has been the editor's good fortune to have known many of these pioneers, most of them now passed away. They came to Arizona when it possessed few features that would make a land habitable and when rare pluck was needed to sustain life against adverse conditions of nature and of humanity. No saints were to be found among these men, yet even their lives were at the disposal of a friend, or even of the stranger who might be beset by savages on the road. Often arose questions why they came and why they remained. It is probable that few of them appreciated a fact now undisputed, that there had arisen in their breasts a love for the country itself, with a relative degree of contentment that could not have been reached elsewhere. Of the work and character of some of these pioneers it has been thought well worth while to present a few notes. It is not to be expected that these will be found more than fragmentary in themselves or that they will cover omissions in personal reference heretofore made. The names mainly are of people personally known to the writer and their selection has been made almost casually, generally suggested in the consideration of events dealt with heretofore.
POSTON, "THE FATHER OF ARIZONA"
Most notable among the pioneers of the Southwest was Charles D. Poston, to whom in later years came the enduring title of "Father of Arizona." His life was full of official honor and activity. His mental endowment, education and training all contributed to place him high among his fellow men. He was industrious in forwarding his own ambitions. His service to the territory had been acknowledged by legislative resolutions and by the granting even of a pension. Yet his death, June 24, 1902, in Phoenix, was on the floor of an adobe hut, wherein he had lived for several years, solitary and under most squalid conditions. His burial was at the expense of a number of friends, all of them
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Arizona pioneers. His body lies in the cemetery at Phoenix where the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1906 erected a small headstone.
Poston was born in Hardin County, Kentucky, April 20, 1825. Orphaned at 12 years of age, he was reared by relatives. He studied law and was ad- mitted to practice at Nashville and also practiced at Washington. Some time after the acquisition of California, he went to San Francisco to employment as a custom house clerk. His advent in the Southwest was in 1854, leading a com- pany of thirty men for exploration. The party landed at Navachista in Jan- uary of that year and journeyed through upper Sonora and through Arizona south of the Gila to Fort Yuma. With specimens of the mineral wealth he had found he returned to California and thence went by way of the Isthmus to New York, Kentucky and Washington, where he spent the following year enlisting the support of capital.
In 1856, backed by an organized company, he entered Arizona again from the east with a party largely German in constitution, and started mining near Tubac. In 1857 he was relieved of his position as manager by General Heintzel- man and was transferred to the company's office in New York. He was back again in Arizona later in charge of the company's business, and he was serving as recorder for Doña Ana County, New Mexico, which county then embraced all of lower Arizona. For a part of that time Tubac had a newspaper to which Poston was a contributor. He had to flee for his life, however, together with Prof. R. Pumpelly and a number of American miners, when troops were with- drawn and Mexicans and Apaches alike descended upon the undefended mining camps. During the Civil war he served for a while as volunteer aid to his old friend, General Heintzelman, though his military title merely was one of courtesy.
Poston was very active in the work leading up to the organization of the new Territory of Arizona in 1863. Those men who secured the offices in the new subdivision seem to have been the ones who had helped most in putting through the congressional act of establishment. He did not enter Arizona with the official party, however. He went overland to San Francisco by the northern stage route and thence, in company with J. Ross Browne, made his way into the new territory through Yuma. According to Browne, Poston knew every foot of the country, talked Spanish like a native, believed in the people and climate, had full faith in the silver, implicitly relied upon the gold and never doubted that Arizona was the grand diamond in the rough; withal he talked and acted like a man perfectly sane. He admitted, however, that while Arizona was prolific in reptiles and the precious metals, it was painfully destitute of every- thing for the convenience of civilized man.
His services as Indian commissioner were short, for at the first election he was chosen delegate to Congress and forthwith departed for his field of duty at Washington, taking the Panama route, with a mileage charge of $7,000. That he had accomplished something is indicated by the fact that the First Legisla- ture tendered its thanks to him "for the earnest, able and efficient manner in which he has discharged the duties of superintendent of Indians." No record is at hand of Poston's service as delegate, but it would appear that he did not view with equanimity his retirement from Congress.
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Late in 1866, the Legislature passed a concurrent resolution reciting that information had been received that "Hon. Chas. D. Poston, late delegate to Congress from this territory, has circulated in Washington a report that Hon. John N. Goodwin, delegate-elect to Congress from this territory, was elected through fraud and misrepresentation and that said Hon. Chas. D. Poston has further announced his determination to contest the seat of Hon. John N. Good- win in Congress upon grounds as aforesaid." The Legislature thereupon for- mally declared "That we firmly believe the election of Hon. John N. Goodwin to have been, in all respects, regular, and that he was honestly and fairly elected by a majority of all the legal votes case in this territory, for delegate, and that no fraud or undue influences were used by said Hon. John N. Goodwin, or his friends, to procure such election ; that we regret exceedingly, and must condemn without reserve, as most detrimental to our interests, the position taken by said Hon. Chas. D. Poston, having, as we conceive it does, a direct tendency to place Hon. John N. Goodwin, our delegate, in a false position before Congress, lessen- ing his influence therein."
Poston himself, in his little poetical volume, "Apache Land," thus made reference to a subsequent failure, when he ran for delegate against Governor McCormick :
The Tucson people were quite elate, They'd swapped the capital for a delegate; All for this exalted honor itch, And would swap the devil for a witch; The governor has this condition, He signs the delegate's commission, And for the honor and the pelf, He always signs it for himself. The Washington folks here might learn Advantage of the count to turn.
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