USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. IV > Part 18
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" 'The business of William H. Hooper & Co. will hereafter be conducted under the name of James M. Barney, the member of the firm who has had, for several years, the sole management of the Arizona end of the business, which has been represented in this city by Major Hooper.
" 'Colonel Barney is popularly known through the Territory and is a business man of much ability and enterprise, and backed up by ample means to conduct a large business. The with- drawal of Major Hooper does not impair the capital of the business, nor is any curtailment of its enterprise contemplated. The dissolution of copartnership has been the result of an expressed desire on the part of Major Hooper to retire into a less active life than the one in which he has been successfully and honorably engaged for
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so many years. The name of Hooper & Co. is taken down, after twenty-four years of most honorable service in the interest of the Terri- tory, without ever having had the slightest blem- ish. Col. Barney, in continuing the business under his own name, succeeds to its good reputa- tion and prosperity with every prospect of con- tinued good fortune. He has acquired a hand- some fortune in the business during the last ten years, which now strengthens his resources.'
"George F. Hooper, the founder of this his- toric business house, after his retirement from the business became President of the First Na- tional Gold Bank of San Francisco, while Major Hooper erected the famous hostelry known as the Occidental Hotel on Montgomery Street, in that same city.
"About the middle sixties a well supplied branch store was started at Maricopa Wells, where Carr, Barney, and Hinton were in charge at different times. Prior to this period the Wells had been in possession of John B. Allen, a well-known pioneer. In 1868, when Barney was in that section, he laid out the first direct road across the desert from Florence to the Salt River, over which the firm's freight from that settlement to Fort McDowell was hauled. The Arizona Eastern railroad now traverses almost the same stretch of country."
It will be remembered that the town of Colo- rado City, afterwards Arizona City, and finally Yuma, was claimed by California and by Ari- zona, but it can safely be said that Hooper & Co.'s store was the first American mercantile establishment in what is now the State of Ari- zona.
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Edward N. Fish, who is mentioned in this chapter, was a '49er, who subsequently came to Arizona and made the Territory his home. In 1849, with forty Massachusetts men, Mr. Fish sailed from New Bedford on the "Florida, " and rounded Cape Horn, finally arriving at San Francisco. After several years of varied occu- pations in California, Mr. Fish, in 1865, came to Arizona, and became a member of the firm of Garrison & Fish, post traders at Calabasas. After about a year Mr. Fish removed to Tucson, where he established a large general merchandise store. In addition to this business, he engaged in the cattle business and milling, and in order to meet the need of a reliable freighting system, he established a freight line between Yuma and Tucson, and other parts of Arizona. Mr. Fish also maintained a branch store at Florence, where he transacted a very large business. In the early days of California he was a member of the Vigilance Committee there. After coming to Arizona he was, for eight years, a member of the Board of Supervisors of Pima County, for most of which time he was Chairman of the Board.
Mr. Fish was twice married, the first time in 1862 or 1863 to Barbara Jameson, in San Fran- cisco, the result of this union being two child- ren, one of whom is still living. His second marriage was to Maria Wakefield, in 1874, in Tucson, Miss Wakefield having the honor of be- ing the first white woman married in Tucson, being also the first public school teacher in Tuc- son. From this marriage there were born four children, three of whom are still living. Mr. Fish died in Tucson on the 18th day of Decem- ber, 1914.
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CHAPTER XIII. EARLY SETTLEMENTS (Continued).
WELLS AND OSBORN PARTY-BIOGRAPHY OF E. W. WELLS-SETTLEMENTS IN WILLIAMSON VAL- LEY, WALNUT GROVE, KIRKLAND VALLEY, PEEPLES VALLEY AND SKULL VALLEY- SHABBY TREATMENT OF SETTLERS BY THE GOVERNMENT-"MINER" EDITORIAL-FIRST MORMON SETTLEMENTS-HINES' DITCH .- WOOLSEY AND MARTIN PURCHASE AGUA CALI- ENTE RANCH-TAKE OUT DITCH-BIOGRAPHY OF GEORGE MARTIN.
The Wells and Osborn party, of which E. W. Wells was captain, and John P. Osborn, James M. Swetnam, Joseph Ehle and others, were members, was organized in Colorado, and ar- rived in Prescott in July, 1864. Captain Wells remained in the Territory about three years, when he returned to the East. John P. Osborn was accompanied by his wife and seven children. Osborn had three or four ox teams, all loaded down with flour, hams and bacon, also a herd of cattle. Most of the cattle the Indians confiscated. Mr. Osborn sold the remainder to butchers in Prescott. When Mr. Osborn arrived at Pres- cott, bacon was worth seventy-five cents a pound, flour a dollar, and so on, which gave him quite a capital to commence business. As has already been stated, he built the first hotel in Prescott, and afterwards took a prominent part in laying out the city of Phoenix. He was born in Ten- nessee on the 25th of March, 1815, and was eighty-five years old at the time of his death.
JOHN P. OSBORN & WIFE.
EDMUND W. WELLS.
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His wife was born in 1820, on the 21st of Janu- ary, and died in December, 1912. Both of them are buried in Phoenix, three sons surviving them, William, Neri, and John. His grandson, Sidney P. Osborn, is now Secretary of State of Arizona.
According to Mr. Neri Osborn, when the party arrived in Prescott, the only families in that country were Sanders and his family, and Leib and his wife, and the woman who followed King S. Woolsey from California, and afterwards married John Boggs. This was the first mar- riage in Prescott. The second marriage in Prescott was Mary J. Ehle to John H. Dickson.
Edmund W. Wells, who was born on a farm at Lancaster, Ohio, in 1846, a son of the captain of the Wells and Osborn party, accompanied the party, and drove the team belonging to his father across the plains.
Shortly after his arrival in Prescott, he, with his associates, under contract with the militarv authorities, supplied them with posts and tim- bers, taken from the surrounding pine forests, for building a stockade fort and corrals at Fort Whipple in the vicinity of Prescott. He was subsequently employed at the Fort as clerk in the Quartermaster and . Commissary Depart- ment, and later was transferred to the Rio Verde Valley upon the establishment of Camp Lincoln, afterwards Camp Verde, at that point.
He became interested in farming and ranching in the new and only settlement on the Verde River and Clear Creek, under the protection of Camp Lincoln, but after two years he abandoned farming and again took a clerical position.
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In 1867 he was appointed Clerk of the United States District Court for the Third Judicial District of Arizona, which position he held until 1874. He was elected and served two terms as Recorder of Yavapai County, and, in the mean- time, during his leisure hours, studied law under Chief Justice William F. Turner, and also under Captain Joseph P. Hargrave, and was admitted to the bar in the Supreme Court of the Territory in 1875. Soon after the expiration of his term as Recorder, he formed a law partnership with Judge John A. Rush, a mining lawyer of prom- inence on the Pacific coast, with whom he was associated for fourteen years. He was elected and served two terms as District Attorney of his county, and several years as Assistant United States Attorney for Arizona, and, at two differ- ent terms, represented his county in the upper house of the Territorial Legislature. In 1887 he was a member of the Commission appointed by the Governor to review, revise and codify the Territorial Statutes. In 1889 he retired from the practice of law, but in 1891, was appointed, by President Harrison, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Arizona. During Governor Brodie's administration, Judge Wells was At- torney-General of the Territory, and in 1910, was one of the few Republicans chosen as Dele- gate to the Constitutional Convention.
In 1882, in connection with Hugo Richards, Sol Lewis, and W. E. Hazeltine, he became as- sociated in the Bank of Arizona at Prescott which was the first organized Bank in the Terri- tory, and is, to-day, one of the most prosperous banking institutions of the State, Judge Wells being its President.
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From the start he was an active business man, always interested in stock-raising, mining and other enterprises, in which he was uniformly successful, and in which he has accumulated a competent fortune. In 1869 he was married to Miss Rosalind G. Banghart, a native of Ontario, Canada, and a daughter of George W. Bang- hart, a well-known pioneer. The result of this union is five children, three daughters and two sons. Two of his daughters are married, one living in Prescott, and one in Phoenix, Arizona. The third daughter is unmarried. One son re- sides in Yavapai County, and is engaged in min- ing, the other is engaged in business in Los Angeles, California, where he resides.
Through a long and active business career nothing has ever been charged against Judge Wells which reflected upon his honesty and in- tegrity. He enjoys the friendship of a large circle of friends throughout the State. In 1912 he was the choice of his party, the Republican, for Governor, but was defeated in the election, the State going overwhelmingly Democratic.
Judge Wells, at the age of sixty-nine years, is still active in business, and is largely inter- ested not only in mines in Yavapai County, but in real estate in the Salt River Valley.
In a degree he was identified with the early political history of the Territory in being chosen Assistant Secretary of the Council of the Terri- torial Legislature at its first session convening in Prescott September 26, 1864.
During the year 1865 there were settlements made not only along the Verde, but also in Will- iamson Valley, Walnut Grove, Kirkland Valley, Peeples Valley, and Skull Valley. These val-
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leys were mostly named for the first settlers, except Skull Valley, which was named on ac- count of a massacre of the Indians by the United States soldiers, which occurred in that valley before any settlements were made in northern Arizona. Settlements were also made at the Woolsey ranch, afterwards, and at present, known as the Bowers ranch, about twenty miles from Prescott. In all of these valleys there was more or less grain and other supplies raised. In 1865 and 1866, large crops were raised and harvested, and notwithstanding assurances had been made by the quartermasters of the United States troops that they would provide a market for the products of the farmers, the latter were left with their crops on their hands during these years. Although the government was paying twenty cents per pound for barley and corn, the most it would offer these farmers was ten cents. The consequence was that the farmers were com- pelled to sell their products at about a half of what the government was paying to others, and at an actual loss, because the losses of many of these ranchers of stock and crops taken by the Indians far exceeded the price realized for the remainder. This was in the era of reconstruc- tion, just at the close of the war, when all those in authority seemed to think it was their duty to line their pockets as far as possible. On this subject, in an editorial dated January 26th, 1867, the "Miner" says :
"We have on several occasions alluded to the grain crop of last year with pride and pleasure. First the cause and effect. That the soil of our Territory is adapted to its abundant growth, and, second, that the ranchmen who have
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planted, and risked their lives, are to be fully remunerated. This conclusion was based upon the fact that the government contracts to a large amount, probably one-half the production of Northern Arizona, were offered to our citizens at about sixteen dollars per hundred pounds. These contracts were used by our people and closed, I believe, in accordance with terms made here, and sent to California for approval. Sub- sequently, all the grain contracts were repu- diated by 'red tape.' This we knew some months ago, but we could not understand how our people could be deprived of the sale of their grain until very lately, but it now appears very plain. Parties whose names we withhold for the present, are believed to be secretly interested in these affairs in California. The result is that crops of our farmers, now on their hands, are being sold at prices far below cost, while Cali- fornia grain is used for the supply of the mili- tary posts at prices far above what was ever expected to be realized by our farmers. These are truths, we are sorry to say, but think the remedy is not far distant. As matters now stand, there appears a great wrong, in fact, there are a series of wrongs. The Government, through its quartermasters, offered to buy the produce of our country, reserving the red tape right to back down on any unfair bargains. The next wrong is the going out of the Territory to purchase grain at all, at any price, while it is to be had here. What are our farmers here for ? What in the name of common sense is the ob- ject of our government in sending a military force here ? Is it not that our country, in order
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to be valuable, may be developed and produce a revenue to the U. S .? Where are the hostile Indian tribes, and who or what class of men are doing most to bring about these great ends ? Is it not our ranchmen? Who, more than our farmers, are the sufferers from Indian murders and raids ? These questions require no answers at our hands. The wrongs and frauds practiced upon our government are getting too palpable and glaring to be longer concealed. It is time such things were ended. Let every man view the subject in one aspect only. Consider our public enormous national debt, for the payment of which every one is daily taxed, and then an- swer if the thieving upon our public treasury should not cease ?
"We shall resume the discussion of this sub- ject at a future time, and perhaps give some facts the people ought to know, especially in regard to the amount of produce raised in Ari- zona last year, with the prospects and demand for the crop of 1867."
Another difficulty was the distribution of sup- plies to the Indians. While Leihy was Indian Agent, he claimed that all these supplies were held up on the Colorado River for lack of money to pay transportation, and it was on this account, it is said, that the Indians under his charge revolted and murdered him. How it was finally adjusted, there is no record. It is by no means certain that the Indians at that time received any of the merchandise which Congress had voted them to the extent of twenty thousand dollars, and forty-five hundred dollars for freight. I wish to cast no reflection upon Mr.
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Leihy. It may have been impossible for him to comply with the requirements of the Indians, but of one thing there is no doubt, that the posi- tion of Commissioner of Indian Affairs, not- withstanding the meagre salary of fifteen hun- dred dollars a year in greenbacks, was for many years a very lucrative office in Arizona. This will be fully demonstrated in future pages of this history, dealing with this matter.
According to the Fish manuscript, the first Mormon settlers came to Arizona in 1865. They came from Utah in January of that year, and located on the lower Muddy under the care of Thomas S. Smith. They, and others who soon followed, located the town of St. Thomas. The settlements of St. Joseph and Overton were soon after founded. On May 28th, Joseph Warren Foote was appointed to preside at St. Joseph. This place was partially destroyed by fire on August 18th, 1868. When this part of Arizona was cut off and added to Nevada, the assessor of that part of Nevada came to the settlements and demanded all the back taxes that had been paid by the people to Arizona Territory. The people produced their tax receipts, but this made no difference to the collector, who refused to ac- cept them, and stated that all the back taxes should be paid to the State of Nevada, or the property would be sold for them. This, with the excessive amounts levied by the State of Nevada, decided the settlers to abandon the country, rather than fight the matter through the courts, so the settlements of St. Joseph, St. Thomas and Overton were broken up and abandoned. The wholesale exodus of some five hundred families
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HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
from the Muddy Valley commenced on the first of February, 1871. They had done a vast amount of work in the construction of irrigation ditches, and were cultivating about three thou- sand acres of land. A variety of fruit trees had been set out, with quite a large number of shade and timber trees, all of which, with all the build- ings they had erected, were abandoned. The settlers scattered, some going to southern Utah, while a few, in a later period, came to Arizona, settling on the Little Colorado River. Mr. Fish states that he secured the above information from David Brinkerhoff, who had been one of the settlers on the Muddy, and he further states that Mr. Ninian Miller, of Snowflake, then a boy, was one of the settlers who abandoned the Muddy.
Other settlements were also made, notably one at Walnut Grove, where, according to the "Miner," for a distance of eight miles down the Creek, about five hundred acres had been placed under cultivation, and another at Postle's Ranch in the valley on the branch of the Verde River, twenty miles northeast from Prescott, three hundred acres were cultivated and a profit of twenty thousand dollars realized during the year 1866.
During this year, also, according to the Fish manuscript a man by the name of Hines took out a ditch about three miles above the present site of Fort Thomas. The government, how- ever, paid for the making of the ditch. Hines took up some land on the bottom near where the post was located. He did this for the purpose of raising corn, hay, and vegetables to fill his
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contract at Camp Goodwin. Hines and Hooker had about all the hay, grain, beef and freight con- tracts in this section. Hines did but little here in the way of farming. Camp Goodwin was vacated about 1870 on account of sickness, and Hines' ditch was abandoned at the same time.
About the year 1862 King S. Woolsey and George Martin bought the Agua Caliente ranch from a man by the name of Jacobson and his partner, for eighteen hundred dollars in gold. Around the springs, for some distance, was a kind of cienega, an oasis in the desert, where the grass grew green and fresh, and it was a favorite camping place for teamsters en route to Tucson and other points in the Territory. Woolsey and Martin were the first to take out a ditch on private account for irrigating pur- poses. This ditch is still in existence, and was afterward the subject of litigation between the widow of King Woolsey, and Neahr, which liti- gation will be treated fully further on in this history. The biography of King Woolsey has been given in a previous volume, and from mem- bers of his family and others I have been able to secure the following in regard to Mr. Martin:
George Martin was one of the earliest settlers of the Territory and identified to a great extent with its subsequent history. He was born in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, on the 4th of July, 1832, and received his education in his native land at the Jesuit schools and through private tuition. He came to America in 1851, and enlisted in the Second United States In- fantry in New York, coming to California the following year. He remained in the army un-
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til 1856, his knowledge of drugs gaining him the position of hospital steward. After his dis- charge from the army in 1856, Mr. Martin located in Yuma, assuming control of the sutler's store at that place, which position he held until 1859. When the placer mines were discovered at Gila City, he opened a general merchandise store, taking advantage of the need for supplies. After the war between the states broke out he went into partnership with King S. Woolsey on the Agua Caliente ranch, and at the end of three years disposed of his interest in the ranch to Woolsey. He then entered the employ of Hooper & Company at Yuma, having charge of their store there until 1872, when he established a drug business in Yuma, which he transferred to Tucson in January, 1884. He was a resident of that city until the time of his death. He was prominent in local affairs, serving as county supervisor and county treasurer of Yuma County, and also as city treasurer and member of the city council of Yuma.
While a resident of Yuma Mr. Martin married Miss Delfina Redondo, a daughter of Stevan Redondo, one of the leading men of Sonora, Mexico, and a member of an old Spanish family. To Mr. and Mrs. Martin were born eight child- ren; one of them, Andrew, served in the Upper House of the second State Legislature of Ari- zona.
Mr. Martin died in Los Angeles, California, March 30th, 1907, and is buried in Tucson.
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POSSIBILITIES OF THE TERRITORY.
CHAPTER XIV.
MINES AND MINING-POSSIBILITIES OF THE TER- RITORY-RESUMPTION OF MAIL AND STAGE LINES.
EARLY PROSPECTING IN GILA COUNTY-DISCOVERY OF COPPER AT CLIFTON-CAPTAIN HARDY'S PROSPECTING EXPEDITION-MINING AT THE "VULTURE"-R. C. MCCORMICK'S OPINION AS TO POSSIBILITIES OF THE TERRITORY-RES- TORATION OF MAIL AND FREIGHT LINES.
Although the first excitement created by the discovery of the placer mines in the vicinity of Prescott had somewhat died down, mining and prospecting were still carried on to a very large extent, not only along the Hassavampa and in Yavapai County, but in other parts of the terri- tory. The first record I have of prospecting or mining in Gila County is given in the Fish manu- script, which states :
"The first man to explore and prospect in the vicinity of Globe was a man by the name of Stowe, and but little is known of him, for he was alone, and very reticent as to his doings. He visited old Camp Goodwin in 1864-65. He went to the camp for supplies, which the boys gave him. He was furnished provisions from the commissary, for at that time the government supplied any and all travellers who needed food, even though the parties had no money. This prospector made four or five trips to the Post, each time securing enough provisions to last about three months. He finally failed to put in a reappearance, and no trace of him or his gold
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and silver mines has ever been found by white men."
In the Fish manuscript it is stated that the wonderful copper deposits at Clifton, which have made the mines in that place famous throughout the west, and placed them at the head of the list in the production of copper, were first discovered by soldiers on some of their scouting expedi- tions after the Apaches as early as 1865, although it is finally claimed that the real discovery was in 1870. The history of these mines will be treated farther along in these pages.
In 1866 a prospector reached Hardyville and displayed some rich specimens of copper and sil- ver, creating much excitement among the resi- dents of that place. Captain W. H. Hardy formed an expedition to go in quest of the silver mountain, which the prospector said was near the mouth of the Little Colorado. The party reached its destination but, failing to find the sil- ver mountain, started to return to Hardyville. Near Cataract Creek the party was attacked by Indians, but escaped by flight, turning their mules loose; and some of the mules reached Hardyville before the men.
Much has been mentioned in a previous chap- ter of the discovery of the Vulture Mine, and this mine, as old residents of Arizona know, had some very varied experiences. After Henry Wicken- burg, its discoverer, had managed to get the first ton of the ore packed into his camp in 1864, and ground, he sold to anyone who would put up an arrastra, the ore for $15 a ton, the buyer mining and sorting the ore himself. During the years 1865 and 1866, there were four mills built within less than one mile of the present town of Wicken-
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burg; one a five-stamp mill, built by Charles Ty- son, another a five-stamp mill built by Jack Swill- ing at the place where F. H. O'Brien afterwards owned a ranch; another a ten-stamp mill, and the fourth a twenty-stamp mill, half a mile above the present town of Wickenburg. This last mill was run two years when twenty more stamps were added, after which it was run until 1871. James Cusenberry built the twenty-stamp mill, and also added the twenty more stamps. He turned the management over to a man named Sexton, who ran it into the ground, and was over one hundred thousand dollars in debt in Arizona in 1871, when he had to close down. C. B. Genung, says that it is hard to tell how much the Vulture owed in California at that time, and that it is doubtful if any of the debts were ever paid.
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