USA > Arizona > Arizona, prehistoric, aboriginal, pioneer, modern; the nation's youngest commonwealth within a land of ancient culture, Vol. II > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
October 4, 1867, the permanent seat of government of the territory was established at Tucson, to be effective November 1, 1867. Tucson from the first had tried to secure the capital. She had lost by a tie vote in the Council in 1866. Then had been compromise suggestions of La Paz, Walnut Grove, and of the establishment of a new capital city, to be named Aztlan, at the mouth of the Verde River. At last Tucson was victorious, through the desertion in the Assembly of representatives from Pah-Ute and Mohave. The vote stood 5 to 4 in the Council and 9 to 7 in the Assembly. This was when Poston claimed that McCormick sold Prescott out in order to secure the support of the south in his congressional aspirations.
It has been told that the first legislative sessions in Tucson were held in Congress Hall, a gambling saloon, but there has been found a record to the effect that sessions of the Legislature were held in three locations, in what later was called the New Orndorf Hotel, in the Charlelou Block and in a long adobe building belonging to Tully & Ochoa on the south side of Ochoa Street, between Convent Street and Stone Avenue. The one wherein the last Tucson session was held only lately was demolished. It is told that the members found con- venient filing places for papers in chinks opened with their knives between the adobe bricks.
In 1875 a bill was passed to locate the capital permanently at Tucson, but it was vetoed by the governor. At the following biennial session there was an accession of strength, possibly financial, to the northern side of the Legislature and the capital again was changed, to remain at Prescott till shifted to Phœnix in 1889. Legislative chambers were found in Curtis Hall in West Prescott. The territorial officers were housed in quarters around the city, the governor and secretary having chambers in an end of the public school building. Better
--
PRESCOTT COURTHOUSE, 1877
GURLEY STREET FROM CORTEZ, LOOKING WEST, PRESCOTT, 1877
349
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
quarters later were provided at the new city hall on the Gurley Street hill, a brick structure later used as a school.
Rather at the instance of the representatives of Yavapai County and as one way of keeping the capital at Prescott, the Legislature of 1881, on the ground of dissatisfaction with the figures of the federal census, provided for a territorial census, to be taken by the supervisors of the several counties and to be used in calculating the relative representation to the succeeding Legis- lature. Even Governor Tritle at the succeeding legislative session felt it his duty to call attention to the dissatisfaction felt throughout the territory over the alleged fraudulent returns made by many census marshals. Yavapai in the federal census was given a population of about eight thousand. In the sup- plemental, remedial census, she queerly showed the effects of a sudden surge of immigration and was credited with a doubled population, the balance of power thus remaining with her, provided Apache and Mohave counties continued loyal. It was told that, the invention of the census marshal waning, there were brought in a number of bulky hotel registers, secured in San Francisco and copied upon the census blanks, as showing residence in miscellaneous voting precincts, but mainly to the greater glory of Prescott. To this day this count is known as "the bed-bug" census.
In 1889, Prescott gave up the fight, but resentfully. Money was subscribed at Phoenix to pay all of the expenses of moving and quarters were provided in the new city hall only barely completed. Most of the legislators from the south went to Prescott around by way of Seligman. Organization was hurriedly accomplished and a single bill was passed transferring the capital to Phoenix.
Soon thereafter an act was passed creating a commission which was to choose a site for a permanent capitol building. This commission decided upon a tract of ten acres west of the City of Phoenix and at a subsequent legislative session their action was approved and funds were provided for beautifying the grounds. Act No. 9 of the Nineteenth Legislature, approved March 8, 1897, provided for the erection of a capitol building and authorized the issuance of $100,000 of 5 per cent territorial bonds to provide the necessary funds. The act was approved by Congress, the bonds were sold and in 1899 construction was commenced under Commissioners E. B. Gage, Walter Talbot and F. H. Parker. The total cost of building and furniture was only $140,000. Con- gressional help was asked, but not received.
The capitol was dedicated and formally occupied February 24, 1901. The orators of the day were Governor N. O. Murphy, Chief Justice Webster Street and President Eugene S. Ives of the Territorial Council, while responses came from almost every county. In the evening was a great publie reception, whereat first was presented the Arizona ode, sung by Mrs. Frank Cox of Phoenix.
The walls of the capitol are of tufa, a loosely-compacted volcanic ash, brought from Kirkland Valley, a hundred miles to the northward. The fonn- dation is of superb granite, from the hills near Phonix. The building is of strikingly handsome exterior. Within, on the ground and main floors, are located the offices of the major part of the territory's official staff, the governor on the north and the territorial secretary on the south. On the third floor are the legislative chambers, with about a score of committee rooms and with broad balconies for the public.
CHAPTER XXVIII
CLOSING YEARS OF THE TERRITORY
The Various Capitols of Arizona Till Dedication of the State House at Phoenix-Admin- istrations of Governors Murphy, Brodie, Kibbey and Sloan-Arizona's Song and Flower-Raising the Taxes on Mines-Territorial Judges.
A very material change in the political situation in Arizona followed assump- tion of the presidency by Theodore Roosevelt. The possession of a Spanish War record no longer was deemed in the least reprehensible. A number of Rough Riders thereafter dropped into official positions.
In the fall of 1901, a strong attack was made upon Chief Justice Webster Street, the fight led by several Arizona attorneys of large practice. The attack succeeded and in Street's place was named Edward Kent, son of ex-Governor Kent of Maine, a Harvard graduate and latterly an assistant United States attorney at Denver. His appointment was made possible by an all-around fight among Arizona republicans, that had made the appointment of an Arizonan almost impossible. He was sworn into the office of chief justice March 28, 1902, and held the position until the date of statehood. So from Maine came Ari- zona's last, as well as first, chief justice.
CHANGING POLITICAL POLICIES
President Roosevelt ran into trouble with the Senate when he sent to that august body in 1902 the nomination of Benjamin F. Daniels to be United States marshal for Arizona, to succeed McCord, who had been given an ad interim appointment in the previous June. Daniels, who had been a peace officer in some of the wildest periods of pioneer days in Kansas and Texas, had served with distinction as a non-commissioned officer of Rough Riders and was a character of keen attraction to the strenuous President. Charges were brought up in the Senate concerning early episodes in Daniels' life. No less than thrice did the President attempt to secure confirmation, Daniels finally relieving the tension by requesting that his name be no longer considered. Soon thereafter, he was appointed superintendent of the territorial prison. After the death of the principal objector, Senator Hoar, the nomination was renewed and Daniels was confirmed and took the office from McCord July 1, 1905. About the same time, another Rough Rider, Capt. J. L. B. Alexander of Phoenix, succeeded to the office of United States attorney for Arizona, following Frederick Nave, the latter, November 7, 1905, receiving appointment to the office of district judge.
In the same year, Henry Bardshar of Prescott, a former private of Rough Riders, succeeded W. M. Morrison as collector of internal revenue for Arizona
350
----------
351
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
and New Mexico, with offices at Santa Fé. Jerry Millay, a Phoenix lawyer, suc- ceeded Daniels as superintendent of the penitentiary.
In 1902, Robert E. Morrison and J. F. Wilson, respectively, were republican and democratic candidates for delegate to Congress. The election went to the latter.
ARIZONA'S ODE AND ARIZONA'S FLOWER
The Twenty-first Legislature was the first to occupy the new territorial capitol of Arizona. It had been tenanted by territorial officials for several months, but not till the meeting of the legislative body was there a formal house-warming. It occurred February 24, 1901, on the thirty-eighth anni- versary of the congressional act creating the Territory of Arizona. The twenty- first was remarkable especially for its passage of a new code of laws. The civil code was based upon the Texas statutes and the criminal code on that of Cali- fornia. Poston's pension was raised. Supervisors were given authority to appoint county commissioners of immigration. As the official anthem of the Territory of Arizona was adopted a song written by Mrs. Frank Cox and Mrs. Elise R. Averill, entitled, "Hail to Arizona! The Sun-Kissed Land." The trustees of the various school districts of the territory were required to fur- nish copies of the song to the schools. A bond issue of $20,000 was authorized, its proceeds to be devoted to an exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition, 1904. A committee of six members of the Legislature was appointed to join in a recep- tion to President McKinley. The usual memorial was passed in favor of statehood. An additional $3,000 was given to the Pioneer Historical Society to replace the sum appropriated and then absorbed by Fred G. Hughes. There was prohibition of the shooting of antelope within Arizona for ten years.
In its closing days, the Legislature adopted a new constitution, proposed for the prospective State of Arizona and prepared by a committee headed by President Ives of the Council. It was read only by title. Its basis was the constitution prepared in Phoenix in 1891. Practically additional salary was given the governor in a grant of $1,500 per annum, to be expended without return of vouchers. This grant later was refused by Governor Brodie.
A committee consisting of Assemblymen Kimball, Geer and Barker was appointed to select an official flower for Arizona from among the flora of the territory. On March 18 a report by this committee was accepted designating the pure white, waxy flower of the Cereus Giganteus or saguara, by the legislators considered the distinctive plant of Arizona. In the State Legislature of 1915 an attempt was made to alter this designation in favor of the Indian paint- brush, but the resolution, though at first favored, finally was dropped on a showing from Professor Thornber of the State University that the flower sug- gested was in nowise typical of the flora of the state and that the species espe- cially suggested was not even known within the confines of Arizona.
THE BRODIE ADMINISTRATION
Col. O. A. Brodie became Governor of Arizona July 1, 1902. Governor Murphy's term did not expire until December, but in the spring he had ex- pressed a desire to resign, in order that he might attend to his mining business. Governor Brodie's appointees very generally were new in officialdom. They
352
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
included : Attorney-general, E. F. Wells, Prescott; auditor, W. F. Nichols, Willcox ; treasurer, I. M. Christy, Phoenix; superintendent of public instruction, N. G. Layton, Flagstaff; superintendent of the territorial prison, W. M. Griffith, Tucson; adjutant general, Maj. B. W. Leavell, U. S. A., Prescott; captain of rangers, T. H. Rynning, Douglas.
The Twenty-second Legislature met January 19, 1903, with only a small minority of republicans in either House. In the Council, of which Eugene S. Ives of Yuma County was president, the republicans were led by former Gov- ernor J. H. Kibbey. T. T. Powers of Maricopa County was speaker of the House.
The most important work of the session, started early and finished late, centered around the Cowan bill, designated to take from the territorial secretary the incorporation filing fees, said to have been as high as $40,000 a year. The bill transferred the incorporation business to the territorial auditor's office, turning the fees into the territorial treasury. Though the measure was one of justice and of profit to the territory and was warmly supported by the governor and a majority of the legislators, it had violent opposition. Councilman Ashurst submitted a substitute bill providing for the laying of a franchise tax on all corporations and leaving the secretary's fees where they were.
Woman suffrage passed both houses, but was slaughtered in the eleventh hour by Governor Brodie. His veto was not upon the basis of the merits of the measure, but upon the ground that the subject was one outside the power of the Legislature and beyond the limitations of the organic act, which limited the franchise to male citizens. The governor pocketed an act which sought to repeal one of two years before that provided that tax assessments must be paid before appeals were taken to the courts. This repeal especially was fought in the interest of the United Verde, which had been raised to an assessment valuation of $1,200,000 by Yavapai County supervisors.
In this Legislature something of a beginning was made on "labor" legisla- tion, of which so much latterly has been known in Arizona. Directed particu- larly against the companies employing Mexican and contract labor, an act was passed prohibiting more than eight hours of labor on underground work in mines. Other acts of importance were: Directing that the American flag he raised over all schoolhouses; establishing a territorial board of health; limiting medical practice and shutting out Christian Science practitioners; reorganizing the rangers; giving tax exemption for ten years to new railroads; forbidding the working of trainmen for more than sixteen hours; prohibiting the establish- ment of saloons within six miles of any public works; exempting storage dams and beet sugar factories from taxation for specific periods of time; calling special elections on municipal franchises; prohibiting the use of tokens in the payment of wages.
The transfer of the incorporation fees was interesting in a number of ways. The fees had been secured from a previons Legislature by Secretary C. H. Akers. He had hardly settled into the enjoyment of the income when he was succeeded by his bitterest political enemy, Isaac T. Stoddard. Stoddard, a member of the "stalwart" wing of the republican party, was persona non grata to the Brodie administration, under Roosevelt. Stoddard's position further was weakened by his attempts to hold the large fees of his office and to defeat the Cowan bill. So,
C
C
OF
L
ROUGH RIDER ESCORT TO PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT ON HIS INAUGURATION
353
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
on April 1, 1904, he was succeeded by W. F. Nichols, who had been territorial auditor. Treasurer I. M. Christy was transferred to be auditor and E. E. Kirk- land, an Arizona pioneer, was made treasurer.
In June, 1903, Secretary Stoddard, acting as governor in the absence of Colonel Brodie, took quick action in putting down riots that occurred at Morenci in connection with a great strike that had followed the enforcement of the Legis- lature's eight-hour law. The national guard, as elsewhere told, was ordered into the camp and within a day had restored order. It was later reinforced by a strong body of regular troops from Forts Huachuca and Grant .. The leaders of the rioters were punished at the October term of the District Court in Graham County, being sentenced to imprisonment in the county jail and in the peniten- tiary. The leader, Lostenneau, died in the penitentiary.
On December 1, 1903, was opened the Arizona Industrial School at Benson, under the superintendency of Frank O'Brien, who had been probate judge of Cochise County. He has had many successors. For a number of years there was relative peace in the institution, when it was managed by James Mahoney of Winslow. About the time of statehood it was found that the building had been so poorly constructed that it was dangerous for occupancy, and that the site offered no facilities for farming or other industries for the inmates. The school therefore was moved to Fort Grant, north of Willcox. Several superintendents have been dismissed on charges of incompetency or brutality, and not until a very late date has the institution ceased to occupy large attention in the public press.
The first democratic territorial convention of 1904 declared for William Randolph Hearst for the presidency, the only dissonant note in the convention being the departure of a contesting Gila County delegation, which refused to divide the vote of that county.
In the earlier republican convention of 1904, the delegates chosen for the national convention at Chicago were instructed to support the name of Theodore Roosevelt for the presidential nomination. The delegates chosen were headed by Governor Brodie and Judge J. H. Kibbey. There had been an attempt to send an uninstructed delegation, but this proved unsuccessful early in the cam- paign.
The nominations of the leading parties in 1904 for congressman were Marcus A. Smith, democrat, and Benjamin A. Fowler of Phoenix, republican. Mr. Fow- ler, while standing against joint statehood, in accordance with the expressions of both conventions, relied also upon his record as one of the leaders in the national irrigation movement, which he especially had served as president of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association. But Smith, as usual, was elected, by a vote of 10,394 to 9,522.
In February, 1905, Eugene A. Tucker was appointed judge of the First District, to succeed Judge Geo. R. Davis. This appointment was an unhappy one, which Tucker soon was pleased to resign. A photograph is said to have been sent to the department of justice showing the judge during court session, with his feet on the bench, and smoking a cigar. There were charges also that he had been offered a private residence by citizens of Globe in order to influence a change of the United States Court session from Solomonville to that point. Judge Tucker was relieved from office in October, 1905. In his place
354
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
first was named Paul Jesson of Nebraska, but the position eventually went to Frederick Nave, former United States attorney.
Governor Brodie resigned, effective February 14, 1905, to accept appointment as assistant chief of the records and pension bureau of the war department at Washington, with the rank of major. His parting was sped most happily. The Legislature passed resolutions of esteem, voted him a gift of a handsome saber and ordered a portrait to hang in the executive chambers.
At the time of his appointment, Colonel Brodie had been a resident of Arizona practically ever since 1870, when, after graduation from West Point, he joined the First United States Cavalry as a second lieutenant and at once was thrown into the thick of military operations against the Apaches. He was promoted to first lieutenant in May, 1875, and in that rank served as regimental adjutant. With his regiment he also fought the Nez Perces in Idaho. At the outbreak of the Spanish war he was the leader in the organization of several troops of the First Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders) and as a major commanded the first squadron of that regiment, rendering distinguished service in organization and action, until wounded at Las Guasimas, June 24, 1898. Soon thereafter he succeeded to the place of lieutenant-colonel of the regiment on the promotion of Colonel Roosevelt.
In the regular army he was successively promoted to be lieutenant-colonel and colonel, serving at Washington, San Francisco and other points within the United States and in the Philippines. He was retired as colonel in November, 1913, having reached the age of 64 and now is resident in Haddonfield, New Jersey.
APPOINTMENT OF GOVERNOR KIBBEY
Judge Joseph H. Kibbey of Phoenix succeeded to the office of Governor of Arizona, sworn March 7, 1905, in the middle of the session of the Twenty-third Legislature. He came to Arizona from his native State of Indiana in 1887 and soon thereafter was appointed a member of the Supreme Court of Arizona, wherein he laid the foundation of the irrigation law now generally accepted throughout the western states. In private practice he attained high reputation as an expert on irrigation law and his plans for the formation of irrigation dis- trict associations were adopted by the interior department for all water storage enterprises under construction. He served as attorney for the Water Users' Association of both the Colorado and Salt River valleys. The governorship was offered him without solicitation on his part, after a clash of two factions in Washington. Though independent in personal action within his party at the time of his appointment, he was chairman of the republican territorial committee and had been a delegate to the last National Republican Convention from Arizona. He had served under Governor Brodie as attorney-general.
In his message to the Twenty-third Legislature, Governor Brodie laid especial stress upon the necessity of a proper mining tax law. Mines, he found, paid into the county and territorial treasuries only $178,000 on an assessment of $4,442,- 995, while the product of the mines for the year before had been valued at $38,700,000. The long struggle to raise the assessments of the mines had a break in its monotony in August, 1905, when Governor Kibbey peremptorily requested the resignation of A. F. Donau from the territorial board of equalization, which by an even vote had failed to raise the assessment on the producing mines of
1 1 i
1
1
355
ARIZONA-THE YOUNGEST STATE
Arizona from $4,000,000 to $14,000,000. The same motion came up the following day and was passed. It was shown at that time that 120 mining claims in Bisbee, comprising some of the greatest producing property in the Southwest, had been assessed at only $56,000, that the gross tax valuation of the United Verde was only $800,000, and that the Arizona Copper Company paid more income tax in Scotland that it did realty tax in Arizona. The board of equaliza- tion finished its session with a raise of about $13,000,000 on property generally to a gross figure of $57,920,372.
The Twenty-third Legislature of Arizona began its session at Phoenix January 16, 1905. It was most prodigal in the granting to itself of an expense account, moving a councilman from Maricopa County to the introduction of an amend- ment providing that three messengers be appointed to blindfold the Goddess of Liberty on the capitol building, two messengers to convey funds from the territorial treasury and seventeen clerks from each house to sit in the gallery to serve as audience. The payroll at first provided totaled about $350 a day.
Sixty-nine bills passed the Legislature. Few laws of importance were enacted, that of chief interest being the creation of the office of public examiner. Large appropriations were given to various territorial institutions. One of its earliest acts, designed to correct a remarkable condition that had been known in one or two counties, directed that no person should be paid the salary of district attorney or be qualified for the office unless he was learned in the law and had been admitted to practice. It was made unlawful to furnish tobacco to any one under sixteen years of age. An appropriation of $10,000 was made toward the cost of a Rough Rider monument at Prescott, an act that had failed in the previous Legislature. Establishment was made of the Arizona Territorial Fair.
The memorials asked for an increase in the number of district judges, pro- tested against the annexation to Utah of the Grand Cañon region, sought an increase in the salary of governor to at least $6,000 per annum, and asked appropriations for the repair of the mission church of San Xavier del Bac and a flat sum of $150,000 for the completion of the territorial capitol.
There was immediate response from Arizona to the cry of distress that came out of San Francisco in April, 1906, at the time of the earthquake and fire, about $100,000 being contributed to the relief fund. Acting Governor Nichols, on his own responsibility, immediately contributed $5,000, feeling that he would be backed by the following Legislature. Maricopa County subscribed $3,000 and other counties were not far behind. From Phoenix were sent five carloads of cattle on the hoof and several carloads of refrigerated beef and dairy supplies. The items of butter and cheese alone donated had an aggregate value of several thousand dollars. Single lodges of several secret orders sent as much as $1,000 each. Later, along the railroad lines provision was made for the feeding of refugees bound eastward.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.