USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. II > Part 13
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"My father, L. J. F. Jaeger, was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. He worked as a me- chanic in the Baldwin shops, Philadelphia. Later was appointed mechanic in the arsenal at Washington, D. C. In the latter part of 1848, he took the first sailing vessel out of Philadelphia bound for San Francisco, the 'Mason.' On reaching San Francisco he worked for a while as a carpenter. At that time the Bay extended to Montgomery Street. He was then employed as engineer on the boats running between San Francisco and Oakland at $25.00 per day. Giving up this position, he joined a party formed to go down to the Colorado River. They had heard of a big influx of people coming into California from New Mexico and Mexico. The party landed at a point about 9 miles below the present site of Yuma, at what was known as
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Fort Yuma. They had to saw their own boards out of cottonwood trees to make flat boats to ferry the traffic over the river. This was the beginning of the ferry they established. Later on my father bought out the other parties and operated the ferry on his own account. The company built a stockade at the ferry to pro- tect themselves from the Yuma Indians.
* * * * *
"In 1851 he returned to Yuma with the troops under General Heintzelman and General Thomas. He established the second ferry just about seven or eight miles from the present Fort Yuma school, which was then the Fort Yuma Military Reservation. They fought with the Indians about a year, and at the end of that time peace was made with the Indians. The treaty was made at the Jaeger house. The Yuma Indians have never broken the peace treaty. During the years 1851-54 Fort Yuma was established and the building completed. My father was at this time carrying passengers across the river, also large droves of cattle and sheep being driven into California by the Luna and Baca families from New Mexico. On the discovery of the Vulture Mine at Wickenburg, my father hauled out the first train load of ore from the mine, which was shipped to San Fran- cisco. He had contracts with the Government for hauling supplies to all the forts up to 1863. He was one of the stockholders in the first canal in the Salt River valley. He also established the town of Sonoita, just across the line in Sonora, and from there he drew a great deal of his supplies furnished to the Government. In
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1861-62, there were tremendous floods on the Colorado River, which washed out part of Jaegerville, the first ferry crossing. Arizona City, now Yuma, was then established. In 1863 the first large store in Arizona was established at Arizona City by a man named Hinton, who brought in a mechanic from San Diego to put a tin roof on his building. The name of the me- chanic was Julian. This was probably the first tin roof placed on a building in this territory.
"My father ran the ferry up to 1877 when the Southern Pacific was extended through to Yuma, selling out to that railroad."
(The part left out in the above designated by asterisks, is a description of Mr. Jaeger's trip to San Diego, on the return part of which he was severely wounded by the Indians. This is given in full in an earlier chapter of this work in that portion devoted to the Yuma ferries.)
Mr. Jaeger died in Washington, D. C., June 30, 1892, where he had gone to press his Indian and other claims against the Government.
Charles D. Poston, whose name is thoroughly identified with the early history of Arizona, and to whom we have had occasion to refer to here- tofore, and will, in future volumes record his further activities, was born in Hardin county, Kentucky, April 20th, 1825. He was left mother- less when twelve years of age, and soon there- after was placed in the County Clerk's office, where he served an apprenticeship of seven years. He was in the office of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Nashville, for the next three years, where he studied law and was ad- mitted to the bar. Upon the annexation of Cali-
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fornia, and the discovery of gold in that State, he decided to seek a home in that favored land, and upon his arrival in San Francisco was employed in the customhouse. After the Gads- den purchase, he came with an exploring party to Arizona. After examining the Territory, he was favorably impressed with its richness in gold and silver. He returned to California, and from thence journeyed to New York, Kentucky and Washington, where he spent a year in inter- esting capital in the new Territory.
In 1856, having accomplished the task he had assigned himself, Mr. Poston returned to Ari- zona, provided with funds for prospecting and opening mines, which were furnished by a New York company. Afterwards he was transferred to the New York office when the civil war broke out, for, as we have seen, all work upon these mines was then abandoned. Upon the organi- zation of the Territory in 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln, Superintendent of Indian Affairs. This office he held for about one year, when he was elected first Delegate to Congress from the Territory of Arizona. At the conclu- sion of his term, he made a tour of Europe, and visited the Paris Exposition of 1867. Return- ing to Washington, he engaged in the practice of law there. When the news of the Burlingame Chinese Embassy came over the water, it aroused an ambition to see the historic places of Asia, and in company with J. Ross Browne, an old friend and the then minister to China, he crossed the ocean, bearing with him a commission from Mr. Seward to visit Asia in the interests of im- migration and irrigation, and was also the bearer
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of dispatches from the Chinese Embassy to the Emperor of China.
Before the inauguration of President Hayes, Mr. Poston was appointed by President Grant, register of the United States Land Office of Ari- zona, and he also served as consular agent at Nogales, Mexico, and Military agent at El Paso, Texas. The five years subsequent were spent in Washington, where he promoted the interests of Government irrigation, a measure which has since been so perfected that it is making homes for many thousands of our citizens upon the arid lands. For some time prior to his demise, he lived in Phoenix, where he died on June 24th, 1902.
Herman Ehrenberg, for whom the town of Ehrenberg on the Colorado River is named, was a German by birth. At an early age, he left his native country, and, landing in New York, worked his way down to New Orleans, where he had located when the Texas War of Inde- pendence broke out. He enlisted in the New Orleans Grays, and was present at the battle of Goliad and Fanning's defeat, being one of the few who survived the barbarous massacre of prisoners who surrendered at that time to the Mexican authorities. He returned to Germany at the close of the Texas War, and wrote an ac- count of that interesting period, giving full information of the new country, which induced a large number of Germans to settle in Texas. He returned to the United States in 1840, and joined a party at St. Louis, which crossed the continent to Oregon. From thence he went to the Sandwich Islands, and, after wandering in
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Polynesia for a few years, returned to California in time to join Colonel Fremont in his efforts to free California from the Mexican rule.
When the Gadsden Purchase was perfected, his restless ambitions were directed to Arizona, with the history of which Territory he was closely identified to the time of his death. When the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company was organized in 1856, with Major, (afterwards Major-General), Heintzelman as President, Ehrenberg was appointed topographical and mining engineer, and surveyor, for that com- pany. For a number of years he was actively engaged in the operation of the Cerro Colorado and other mines near the Sonora line, the re- ports upon which first gave him a reputation as a mining engineer in San Francisco and New York. Ehrenberg's map of the Gadsden Pur- chase, although the first, was accredited as being one of the best at that time of the Territory of Arizona. In 1862-63, Mr. Ehrenberg was at- tracted by the rush of miners to the Colorado River, and was one of the earliest settlers at La Paz, where he made his residence at the time of his death. In connection with B. Phillips, he took an active part in developing the Picacho mine near La Paz. He was interested with Messrs. Gray, Cunningham and others in the Harcuvar Copper Mines, afterwards known as the Yuma Copper Company, on the direct road from La Paz to Weaver, to which road the miners gave his name in 1864, in view of his being the first to call attention to its great advantages.
13
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Mr. Ehrenberg visited Prescott in May or June, 1864, when the town was being laid out. During the year 1866 he spent considerable time there examining the mines in that vicinity. He wrote several excellent descriptions of Northern Arizona for the Alta California, of which paper he had long been a favored correspondent.
A man of acknowledged integrity, he was both scientific and practical; a careful and accom- plished student of geology, mineralogy and metallurgy, he was an authority on all matters relating to mining. His reports were never overdrawn, and invited most critical investiga- tion. To have him speak well of a mine was to establish its reputation at once. As a writer he was clear and precise, and his contributions to the various mining journals would make a val- uable volume. He was a fearless and enthus- iastic pioneer. He loved the frontier and was never so happy as when roaming around the hills of Arizona, eagerly examining their rich metallic formation. He was unobtrusive as a citizen, but was progressive. He was repeatedly offered offices, but the only one of which there is a record of his having accepted was, when in connection with Thomas E. Dunn, in 1864-66, he was Indian agent for the Mohaves on the Colorado River Reservation. All other political offices he re- fused, although in all that tended to the welfare of society, he had the liveliest concern.
His death was mourned, not only through the Territory of Arizona, but by the mining men of San Francisco and New York, and in the scientific circles of Europe. He was shot at Dos Palmas, California, on the road from San
PETER KITCHEN.
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Bernardino to La Paz, in October, 1866, by parties unknown, but supposed to have been Indians.
One of the earliest pioneers of Arizona was Peter Kitchen, who came to the Territory in 1854. He was born in Covington, Kentucky, in 1822. Little is known of his early life beyond the fact that he served in some capacity during the Mexican War. He was a man, as I remem- ber him, about five feet ten inches in height, rather spare, always wearing a wide brimmed sombrero; very quiet in his manner; low and soft spoken. There was nothing about the man to indicate the daredevil of dime novels, which is associated in the Eastern mind with the pioneers of the West. After coming to the Territory, he lived at the Canoa for several years, and then moved to a ranch near Nogales, called the Potrero, where he farmed a little, and raised cattle and hogs. He fortified his resi- dences, both at the Canoa and the Potrero by building the adobe walls of the houses higher than the roofs, and having loopholes to shoot through. On many occasions he and his em- ployees stood off Apache attacks. He lived in the heart of the Apache country, and, although subjected to severe losses, he refused to leave the country, but defied the red devils to the end. The following description of his ranch is taken from Bourke's "On the Border with Crook."
"Approaching Pete Kitchen's Ranch, one finds himself in a fertile valley, with a small hil- lock near one extremity. Upon the summit of this has been built the house from which no effort of the Apaches has ever succeeded in driv-
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ing our friend. There is a sentinel posted on the roof, there is another out in the 'cienega' with the stock, and the men ploughing in the bottoms are obliged to carry rifles, cocked and loaded, swung to the plough handle. Every man and boy is armed with one or two revolvers on
hip. There are revolvers and rifles and shot- guns along the walls, and in every corner. Everything speaks of a land of warfare and bloodshed. The title of 'Dark and Bloody Ground' never fairly belonged to Kentucky. Kentucky was never anything but a Sunday- School convention in comparison with Arizona, every mile of whose surface could tell its tale of horror, were the stones and gravel, the sage- brush and mescal, the mesquite and the yucca, only endowed with speech for one brief hour.
"Within the hospitable walls of the Kitchen home the traveller was made to feel perfectly at ease. If food were not already on the fire, some of the women set about the preparation of the savory and spicy stews for which the Mexicans are deservedly famous, and others kneaded the dough and patted into shape the paper-like tor- tillas with which to eat the juicy frijoles or dip up the tempting chili colorado. There were women carding, spinning, sewing-doing the thousand and one duties of domestic life on a great ranch, which had its own blacksmith, saddler, and wagon-maker, and all other officials needed to keep the machinery running smoothly.
"Between Pete Kitchen and the Apaches a ceaseless war was waged, with the advantage not all on the side of Kitchen. His employees were killed and wounded, his stock driven away,
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his pigs filled with arrows, making the suffer- ing quadrupeds look like perambulating pin- cushions-everything that could be thought of to drive him away; but there he stayed, uncon- quered and unconquerable."
The following clipping from the Tucson Citi- zen of June 15, 1872, shows that under adverse circumstances, Pete Kitchen was prosperous:
"Personal: Our friend, Peter Kitchen, was in town this week from the Potrero. He reports that his crops are excellent. He has about twenty acres of potatoes planted, and has made this year about 14,000 pounds of No. 1 bacon and hams, which he has sold at an average of thirty- five cents per pound ; also 5,000 pounds of lard, sold at the same price. Mr. Kitchen's ranch is located near the Sonora line and at one of the most exposed points for Apache depredations in Arizona. The Apaches have endeavored to take his place many times-one partner, and all his neighbors, have been murdered, and last sum- mer his boy was killed within gunshot of his door. Instead of being frightened or dis- couraged by those bold and numerous attacks, he seems only the more determined to stand his ground and take his chances. The Indians have learned to their sorrow that in him they have no insignificant foe. He never travels the same route twice in succession, and he always sleeps with one eye open; therefore, ambushes and sur- prises do not win on him worth a cent. He has been on the picket line now for fourteen years, and has buried nearly all his old acquaintances and should his luck continue, he may truly be called the first and last of Arizona's pioneers."
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Peter Kitchen died a natural death on August 5th, 1895, in Tucson, and was buried in that city.
Hiram S. Stevens, was born in Western Ver- mont on March 20th, 1832, and came to Arizona in 1855. When a youth of 19 he enlisted as a United States soldier and came to New Mexico in Company "I," First United States Dragoons. On being discharged from the service in 1855, he came to Arizona where he resided continu- ously up to the time of his death. At first he was a sporting man, then afterwards a trader and speculator, and in 1874, he was counted one of the richest men in the Territory. At this time he was elected Delegate to Congress. The story told of how his election was accomplished, is illustrative of the wild and woolly way of doing things at that time. The gambling fra- ternity was a very numerous and influential citi- zenship of Arizona. R. C. McCormick had served several terms in Congress, and in seek- ing a re-election, was supported by the adminis- tration, both territorial and national, which was a force hard to overcome. Stevens was equal to the occasion. He took twenty-five thousand dol- lars for his campaign fund and sent his agent to all the prominent gamblers in the Territory, saying to them: "Bet one thousand; bet two thousand ; three thousand, according to the influ- ence of the man and his following, on Stevens being elected, and if you win, return to me the amount which you have wagered, keeping your winning." In this way he enlisted the active support of the sporting fraternity of Arizona, with the result that he was elected by a handsome majority. He served two terms as Delegate to
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Congress ; several terms in the Territorial Legis- lature, and two terms as Treasurer of Pima County, where he died on March 24th, 1893.
James Pennington, familiarly known as "Old Pennington," was also one of the pioneers of Arizona. The Pennington family consisted of James Pennington, his wife and five children, three daughters and two sons. They moved from Tennessee into Texas, and from thence pushed westward through New Mexico into Ari- zona and settled upon the Sonoita near Fort Buchanan in the year 1857 or 1858. During the time of the abandonment of the country by the Americans "he occupied," says Ross Browne, "a small cabin three miles above the Calabasas, sur- rounded by roving bands of hostile Indians. He stubbornly refused to leave the country ; said he had as much right to it as the infernal Indians, and would live there in spite of all the devils out of the lower regions. His cattle were stolen, his corrals burned down, his fields devastated; yet he stood it out to the last. At times when hard pressed for food, he would go out in the hills for deer, which he packed in on his back at the risk of his life." Frequently, in his absence, his daughters stood guard with guns in their hands, to keep off the Indians who besieged the prem- ises. About this time, Miss Lucera S. Penning- ton, was married to a Mr. Paige, and was living with her husband in a canyon where she was captured by a roving band of Indians, together with a little girl about ten years of age, said to be a Mexican, and who it is said, afterwards became the wife of the late Charles A. Shibell of Tucson. Mrs Paige, not being able to keep
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up with the Indians on their trip over the moun- tains, one of them ran a lance through her and threw her over a bluff upon a pile of rocks, and supposed he had killed her, as was his intention, but after several days and nights of suffering, she succeeded in getting to where she was recognized, cared for and saved. Her first husband was afterwards killed by In- dians. She lived for several years in the vicinity of Camp Crittenden, which was estab- lished later near Fort Buchanan, and her father teamed and ranched some on the Sonoita. In 1869, Old James Pennington and his son, Green, were ambushed and killed by the Apaches, and both were buried at Crittenden. Another son named James was killed later by the Apaches. The remainder of the Pennington family moved to Tucson in 1870, and, it is said, returned to Texas, all except Mrs. Paige, who met William F. Scott, at Tucson, and married him. She raised a family of two daughters and one son and died in Tucson March 31, 1913, and was there buried.
"Old Man" Pennington, the head of the family was described as a man of excellent sense, but rather eccentric; large and tall, with a fine face and athletic frame, he presented a good specimen of the American frontiersman. One of the principal streets in Tucson is named for him. This is about all that is known of the Pen- nington family.
W. H. Kirkland, who raised the first Ameri- can flag in 1856 in the town of Tucson, was born in Petersburg, Virginia, July 12th, 1832, and emigrated to Arizona shortly after the Gadsden
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Purchase, eight or nine years before the organ- ization of the Territory. He and his wife were the first white couple married in Arizona, being married in Tucson May 26th, 1860. In 1863 and 1864, he spent a good deal of time around Wal- nut Grove mining and ranching, about which time he purchased the ranch located by Pauline Weaver, and there engaged in stockraising. Later he settled in the Salt River Valley, where Mrs. Wayne Ritter, his daughter, was born in Phoenix on August 15th, 1871. She was born in
the second house which was built in the city of Phoenix. Kirkland died in Winkleman, Ari- zona, January 19th, 1911, at the age of 78 years, and was survived by a wife and seven children.
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CHAPTER X.
EARLY PIONEERS AND SETTLERS. (CONTINUED.)
ESTEVAN OCHOA-EXPULSION FROM TUCSON BY CONFEDERATES-RETURN TO TUCSON-MEM- BER OF FIRM OF TULLY AND OCHOA-
DRAUGHT OXEN RUN OFF BY INDIANS- "JERKED BEEF BUTTE"-MAYOR OF TUCSON -SERVED IN TERRITORIAL, LEGISLATURE - JOHN F. STONE-GIVES NAME TO STONE AVENUE, TUCSON - SYLVESTER MOWRY - WEST POINTER - RESIGNS COMMISSION IN ARMY TO TAKE UP MINING IN ARIZONA- BECOMES OWNER OF PATAGONIA MINE -- MINE CONFISCATED BY GENERAL CARLETON AND MOWRY ARRESTED-MOWRY AS A WRITER -HIS VIEWS ON INDIANS-TWICE ELECTED DELEGATE TO CONGRESS BEFORE ORGANIZA- TION OF TERRITORY-DEATH IN ENGLAND- SAMUEL HUGHES-CAME TO ARIZONA SICK -- ORGANIZED FIRST BANK IN TUCSON-ONE OF ORGANIZERS OF ARIZONA PIONEER'S SOCIETY -HENRY WICKENBURG - DISCOVERS VUL- TURE MINE-TOWN OF WICKENBURG NAMED AFTER HIM-MEMBER OF SEVENTH TERRI- TORIAL LEGISLATURE-KING S. WOOLSEY- FIRST OCCUPATION IN TERRITORY MULE DRIVER-BECOMES RANCHER-SUSPECTED OF BEING SECESSIONIST-FIGHTS WITH INDIANS -HANGING OF DEAD CHIEF - MEMBER OF WALKER PARTY-ONE OF DISCOVERERS OF LYNX CREEK -OPENED FIRST ROAD INTO NORTHERN ARIZONA-THE "PINOLE TREATY"
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-"WHEAT FIELDS" - WOOLSEY'S EXPERI- ENCE WITH A "BAD MAN"-SERVED IN LEGIS- LATURE OF ARIZONA-DEFEATED FOR DELE- GATE TO CONGRESS --- LIEUTENANT-COLONEL OF VOLUNTEERS AND AIDE ON STAFFS OF GOV- ERNOR GOODWIN AND GOVERNOR SAFFORD- ONE OF FOUNDERS OF PHOENIX FLOUR MILLS.
Estevan Ochoa was a New Mexican by birth. In his early youth he went to Kansas City, where he obtained employment and acquired a fair knowledge of the English language. He started in business on his own account at Mesilla, New Mexico. He made a success of the enterprise, and thereafter started a number of branch stores in both New Mexico and Arizona. The firm of Tully & Ochoa, of which he was a member, was one of the largest mercantile establishments in Tucson. In Bourke's "On the Border with Crook" is an account of his visit to Tucson, in which he has this to say of Estevan Ochoa :
"This rather undersized gentleman coming down the street is a man with a history-perhaps it might be perfectly correct to say with two or three histories. He is Don Estevan Ochoa, one of the most enterprising merchants, as he is ad- mitted to be one of the coolest and bravest men, in all the Southwestern country. He has a handsome face, a keen black eye, a quick, busi- ness-like air, with very polished and courteous manners.
"During the war, the Southern leaders thought they would establish a chain of posts across the continent from Texas to California, and one of their first movements was to send a brigade of Texans to occupy Tucson. The com-
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manding general-Turner by name-sent for Don Estevan and told him that he had been in- formed that he was an outspoken sympathizer with the cause of the Union, but he hoped that Ochoa would see that the Union was a thing of the past, and reconcile himself to the new state of affairs, and take the oath of the Confederacy, and thus relieve the new Commander from the disagreeable responsibility of confiscating his property and setting him adrift outside of his lines.
"Don Estevan never hesitated a moment. He was not that kind of a man. His reply was per- fectly courteous, as I am told, all the talk on the part of the Confederate officer had been. Ochoa owed all he had in the world to the Government of the United States, and it would be impos- sible for him to take an oath of fidelity to any hostile power or party. When would General Turner wish him to leave ?
"He was allowed to select one of his many horses, and to take a pair of saddle bags filled with such clothing and food as he could get to- gether on short notice, and then, with a rifle and twenty rounds of ammunition, was led outside the lines and started for the Rio Grande. How he ever made his way across those two hundred and fifty miles of desert and mountains which intervened between the town of Tucson and the Union outposts nearer to the Rio Grande, I do not know-nobody knows. The country was in- fested with Apaches, and no one of those upon whom he turned his back expected to hear of his getting through alive. But he did succeed, and here he is, a proof of devotion to the cause of
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