USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. IV > Part 19
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The ten-stamp mill was owned by Wm. Smith. Fritz Brill and others, and was moved from Wick- enburg to a point about thirteen miles down the Hassayampa, in order to get wood, as the wood had all been consumed near the town. This mill was run until 1878 and 1879, when Smith & Com- pany sold out, their claim and hold on the Vul- ture reverting to James Seymour of New York, who had bought the old Wickenburg interests. Seymour employed James Cusenberry to super- intend the working of the property, and he moved twenty stamps of the old mill down to a point on the river about eleven miles below, and the twenty stamps were run at the place which was called "Seymour" for nearly a year, when a man named Shipman was put in charge. Instead of moving the other twenty stamps to Seymour, he advised the building of a larger mill at the mine and pumping the water from the river to it.
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The result was an eighty-stamp mill, and a seventeen mile pipe-line to it. It was not worked to any extent until 1912, when the prop- erty passed to a Canadian company.
R. C. McCormick, the Secretary of the Terri- tory, afterwards Governor, and then delegate to Congress, probably did more for the advance- ment of the Territory than any other one man. He was enthusiastic as to the possibilities of Ari- zona, as more than one of his letters to the east- ern papers are evidence.
In a previous chapter I gave one of his letters to the "New York Tribune," which was designed to give publicity to the Territory. Mr. McCor- mick was not only an enthusiastic believer in the possibilities of Arizona, but was a student of na- tional affairs, as the following letter, dated June 20th, 1865, will show :
"To the Editors of the Journal of Commerce :
"Your editorial headed 'Safety Valves for Su- perfluous Pugnacity,' suggests a matter worthy not only of the consideration of our now unem- ployed volunteers, but also of the government.
"Just as California offered a safety valve for the superfluous fighting element of the country after the Mexican War, so the territories which have recently been proved to be equals of Cali- fornia in metallic wealth, offer the desired op- portunity for working off the excess of pugna- city which survives the great Rebellion. We do not mean to say that the discharged soldiers who migrate to the territories will have much fighting to do. There will be a taste of it occasionally in scaring off the hostile Sioux, Pah-Utes or Apa- ches. This, with hunting and other wild sports, will enable them to keep up something of their
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rifle practice. But the excitement of the terri- torial life will consist principally of prospecting for, and working mines, and contending with the natural difficulties of the new and almost unex- plored land. As the chances for making a for- tune will be great, so the obstacles to be overcome will be forbidding to all but strong arms and hearts such as American soldiers have carried through the four years war. There could have been no better school than this work to educate men to grapple with the problems of a miner's life.
"The mineral bearing territories undoubtedly offer a wide and tempting field for those who by reason of their work and experience will regard the common occupations of life as monotonous. Primarily they represent a climate unsurpassed in the world for its salubrity, and with which that of any portion of the nation where our armies have operated is unworthy of comparison. If compelled for months, or even for years, to live in the open air, it will be to the benefit rather than to the injury of the physical condition. The certainty of fine weather gives not only a pledge of life and longevity, but a facility for active and continuous labor unequalled in the States. For a time in some quarters there will be a fine field for pugnacity in fighting the hos- tile Indians and the excitement in hunting and trapping, but, as you aptly put it, 'the excitement will consist principally of prospecting for and working mines and contending with the natural difficulties of the new and almost unexplored lands.'
"This is the life, stirring, unrestrained and with great risks to be taken, and great chances
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for gain, that our irrepressible volunteers will seek if there is no further need of their services in the army, or no well and properly organized movement against Maximilian.
"All of the territories present inducements for migration, but the pressure will naturally be toward those presumed to be richest in the pre- cious ores. Every emigrant means to be a miner until he finds that he can do better at something else. Arriving where quartz preponderates, and the placers are uncertain in their vield. he will find it difficult to accomplish much on his indi- vidual account unless possessed of large means. Quartz mining is not a business adapted to the poor man, except as affording him wages for his labor. As capital opens the ledges and puts ma- chinery upon them, as the mines are worked with system and extensively, the territories will be- come a market for unlimited labor at the best rates.
"There is, however, no greater mistake than the idea held by many that if one has no capital to work a mine, or no disposition to labor for an- other in the same, he can do well in a mineral re- gion. A moment's consideration must make it apparent that for all trades and callings, for all classes of labor, the payment is in proportion to the settlement of the country. Where there is a growing population, shoemakers, butchers, bak- ers, blacksmiths, and carpenters, are as much needed as miners, and may generally accumulate wealth as rapidly.
"The territories besides offering cheap, whole- some and profitable homes to our disbanded sol- diers of all trades and tastes, present a field of occupation and development which will be a na-
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tional service and blessing. Next to fighting for the preservation of the Nation, what can be more patriotic and praiseworthy than earnest, ener- getic, enthusiastic efforts to provide for a speedy payment of the war debt, and the substantial prosperity of the Republic ?
"The extent of the mineral wealth of the terri- tories as already known, is beyond calculation, and in several of them, prospecting for lodes is partly begun. A district of Arizona nearly as large as the State of Pennsylvania is yet unex- plored, while tradition designates it as richer in gold than Havilah or Ophir. Every day affords new proof of the greater metallic and agricul- tural resources of our Pacific possessions. The story of their aridity and worthlessness, long a popular belief, is no longer credited. The har- vests of precious areas and of the fruits of the arable soil have spoken for themselves. Their value is not more surprising than the time at which they are forthcoming-the hour of the na- tional necessity. Properly directed and encour- aged American enterprises and industry will speedily sweep away the national debt from sources which but a few years since would have been thought barren and unproductive. There is every reason why our discharged soldiers should go to the territories, but it is my apprehension though, that but a few comparatively will reach there at an early day unless by the interposition of government. The cost of the journey by the usual means of travel is too great for the volun- teer, however prudent he may have been with his pay. Private expeditions may, in instances, af- ford economical transportation, but to insure the extensive and immediate emigration which is de-
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sirable, not only for the unemployed thus to have the benefit of the territories and of the whole country, government must take action. In a letter to a contemporary journal I have dwelt upon this matter as one of great consequence and eminently proper. At a cost of five million dollars, or less, I assume that one hundred thou- sand of the discharged volunteers may be sent to the territories, even to the Pacific. In what way, I ask, can the general government expend five millions of dollars in a manner more likely to bring quick and ample return to the national treasury than in making such a large and valu- able addition to the population of the territories ? Let this be done and there will no longer be a de- mand for troops to keep off hostile Indians or for money to build roads and to make other improve- ments. As a matter of reward for faithful ser- vice; for provision for the health and prosperity of those who merit every recognition and respect, and of political sagacity and economy, it com- mends itself to the attention of the government.
"In this connection may I plead for a more intelligent and liberal consideration of the Ter- ritories in all their relations upon the part of our representatives in Congress, than has hith- erto been given? None but those who have ex- perienced the obstacles and discouragements arising from illiberality at Washington can re- alize what the Territories have had to contend with. It was more than a year after the organ- ization of Arizona before there was a mail route or postoffice in the territory, and at this writing but a small part of the Territory is in the en- joyment of a mail service. The men who, at the risk of their lives and with great labor, took
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the census early in 1864, have not yet been paid. No appropriation for a territorial library, espe- cially needed at the beginning of the government, has yet been made, and the courts and the Legis- lature have met without even a copy of the United States Statutes before them. The most inadequate provision has been made for protect- ing settlers against the Apache, ever active and barbarous in his hostility. Until within the present month there has not, from the hour of its recognition, been a regiment of troops sta- tioned within the Territory, which is three times as large as the State of New York. A reasonable appropriation for the improvement of the navi- gation of the Colorado River, the great highway of communication from the Pacific, not alone with Arizona, but with Utah and the other north- ern Territories, and one of the most important rivers upon the continent, was denied by the late Congress. Such negligence and littleness ill be- comes a great and successful government, and is not at all in accordance with the spirit and de- sire of the people.
"The territories are worthy and should com- mand prompt and liberal and encouraging legis- lation on the part of Congress, and the best treat- ment in the departments. The encouragement given them while yet in their swaddling clothes will be returned a thousand fold. No bread ever cast upon the waters will come back more speed- ily or more abundantly. While the nation was involved in an extensive and trying war there may have been some excuse for inattention to the territories. Now there is none, and the peo- ple should see to it that their representatives in all branches of the government are active and
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generous in their care for the broad domain, the development of which will be a crowning glory of the times, and a lasting one to American enter- prises.
"I am your obedient servant, "R. C. MCCORMICK,
"Secretary of the Territory of Arizona,"
As stated in a previous chapter, the Overland Mail was discontinued in 1861, when the prop- erty of the company was forcibly taken posses- sion of by some of the states through which the line ran, notably the State of Texas; such prop- erty of the company as could be controlled, was moved to the northern route via Salt Lake, and Arizona was left without mail or any public facilities for communicating with the outside world for several years. The first public mail that reached Tucson after the Civil War, came from California on horseback, arriving Septem- ber 1st, 1865, and the first through mail from the eastern states, Barlow, Sanderson & Com- pany, arrived in Tucson August 25th, 1866.
My authority for the above statement is Syd- ney R. DeLong, who came to Arizona as a mem- ber of the California Column, and who was for many years, and until the time of his decease in 1914, a citizen of Tucson, and prominent in political and mercantile history.
Of the mail service and stage lines, Fish, in his manuscript, has the following to say :
"For a year after the organization of its gov- ernment, the Territory was without a mail route or a postoffice. Letters were carried by the courtesy of the military officers. The transit was not very rapid. One instance was that of a
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letter mailed in New York October 3d, which reached Cerro Colorado, May 31st of the follow- ing year. The express carriers had been the main and about the only dependence whereby the people could communicate with the outside world, but with the close of the Civil War, many changes were made, and especially in the mat- ter of mails. Finally mail service was estab- lished, and on September 1, 1865, the first locked mail sack in four years reached Tucson on horse- back. Buckboards were put on shortly after- wards to carry the mails regularly, and in a few months the stage line was re-established."
Although the people of Arizona were for a long time cut off from public mail and passenger service, the freight business was continued, as it had of necessity to be, but the residents of the Territory paid heavily for all supplies which were brought into the Territory. The "Miner," in 1866, says that transportation of supplies via the Colorado River and La Paz cost sixteen cents a pound, and occupied at least ninety days, and that via Wilmington, and from thence overland, it cost seventeen to twenty cents a pound, but the time was greatly reduced, it only taking from thirty to forty days to freight the goods. This, of course, applied only to the town of Prescott.
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CHAPTER XV. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN ARIZONA.
NO PROTESTANT CHURCHES IN TERRITORY IN 1866 -RESUMPTION OF LABORS BY CATHOLICS- ARRIVAL IN ARIZONA OF BISHOP LAMY- VISITS PRESCOTT AND TUCSON-COMMENCE- MENT OF CHURCHES IN TUCSON AND YUMA- ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOL AT SAN XAVIER- REMOVAL OF SAME TO TUCSON-COMMENCE- MENT OF SCHOOLHOUSE FOR SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH-DANGERS FROM INDIANS.
In 1866 there were no regular Protestant churches. Intermittently there were services held in Prescott by the chaplain from Fort Whipple, but there was no organized church. The Roman Catholics were the only denomina- tion actively at work in Arizona. Their priests in Arizona, as elsewhere, were the heralds of the Christian faith. They braved all dangers from the Apaches and, taking their lives in their hands, went forth as true missionaries to propa- gate the Christian faith. As we have seen, their missions were, to some extent, abandoned at the commencement of the Civil War, or soon after they were established. The following account of the resumption of their labors from Bishop Salpointe's "Soldiers of the Cross," written by the Archbishop of Arizona, describes the early activities of the church in the Territory :
"On the 26th of October, 1863, the Right Rev. Bishop Lamy, who had already procured two Jesuit Fathers from California for the missions of Arizona, started from Santa Fe with one of his priests, the Rev. J. M. Coudert, in order to
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pay a visit to these missionaries, and to see the principal settlements of the Territory. From Albuquerque he took the northwestern direc- tion for Prescott, visiting at the same time the Parish of Cebolleta, the Pueblo of Zuni, and other places in western New Mexico. The Bishop reached Prescott toward the middle of Decem- ber, and remained in the neighborhood until after Christmas Day. From there he went by Fort Mohave to Los Angeles, where he spent a few days with the Right Rev. Bishop Amat, and thence started for Tucson by the way of La Paz, Weaver, Salt River, and Maricopa Wells.
"The inhabited districts of what has since be- come the growing city of Prescott were then only small mining camps; Weaver was a gold placer worked by a few Mexican men; still there was activity everywhere, and the miners looked contented and entertained great hopes for the near future. The Bishop and his priest reached Tucson on the 19th of March, just in time to spend Holy Week in that town. They found generous hospitality, the Bishop in the house of W. S. Oury, and Father Coudert in that of Don Juan Fernandez.
"The two Jesuit Fathers already mentioned were the Revs. Mesea and Bosco, the former re- siding in Tucson and the latter in the San Xa- vier pueblo. They had succeeded Father Donato Rogieri, an ex-Franciscan, who was killed, with two of his companions, by the Apaches at the hot springs of Vado de Bigas in the State of Chihuahua, Mexico. This priest worked faith- fully for about three years in Tucson and San Xavier del Bac. He laid in Tucson the foun- dations of the church which was afterwards the
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pro-cathedral of the Vicariate Apostolic of Arizona.
"As the Jesuit Fathers had neither church nor residence of their own in Tucson, they remained only a short time after the Bishop's visit. The people have kept a good remembrance of their stay among them. The San Xavier Indians especially were formerly fond of speaking of Father Mesea as a man who pleaded their cause with their agent, to get from him the agricultural implements they needed, besides caring zealously for their spiritual welfare.
"In August, 1864, the Right Rev. Bishop of Santa Fe was informed that the Jesuit Fathers had been recalled by their Superior, and that Arizona was left without priests to care for the spiritual wants of its people. As the mission was considered a very dangerous one on account of the Apache Indians scattered all over its ter- ritory, the good Prelate felt reluctant to send to it any of his priests authoritatively. What he did was to express his desire that some of them would volunteer for it. Out of three who offered themselves for the distant and danger- ous mission, two were accepted, viz: Rev. Peter Lassaigne and Rev. Peter Bernal. The third was kept back on account of two schools he was actually engaged in building in the parish of Mora, and which had not yet reached their com- pletion. It took only a few days to have the two priests ready for their journey. The distance between Santa Fe and Tucson was six hundred miles. The half of it was travelled by stage without difficulty, but from Las Cruces, where they left the stage, the missionaries could not find any facility for going farther in the direc-
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tion of Arizona. All travel had been stopped for fear of the Apaches who were reported to be roaming in that portion of the country. The priests offered a good sum of money for horses and a guide, but nobody would risk his life for the sake of any money. At last, after three weeks' waiting for an opportunity which did not present itself, the reverend gentlemen had to return to Santa Fe.
"The danger from the Indians between Santa Fe and Tucson was always the same; but time was going rapidly by, and the Bishop was grow- ing more and more anxious every day for the portion of his flock which remained without priests. At this juncture the parish priest of Mora was reminded of the promise he had made the year previous of his services for the missions of Arizona. Bishop Lamy joined to him the Revds. Francis Boucard and Patrick Birming- ham, and Mr. Vincent, a young man, as school teacher. The four were provided with saddle horses, and baggage and provisions. Thus equipped the small party started on their long journey in the afternoon of the 6th of January, 1866.
"Measures had been taken, as far as possible, for the safety of the missionaries. At the re- quest of the Rt. Rev. Bishop, General Carleton, commanding Fort Marcy at Santa Fe, was kind enough to furnish an escort to the missionaries as far as Bowie, the limit of his department."
The journey of these missionaries to Tucson, as detailed by the Rev. Father, was one of great trial, endurance and danger, but they passed through the "Jornada del Muerto (the journey of death), through Cook's Canyon, and all the
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danger points, under the escort of the military, and arrived in Tucson on the 7th of February, 1868, where they were hospitably received and entertained by W. S. Oury and Don Juan Elias.
A few weeks later Don Elias, with the help of some of his friends, purchased a house and lot in the vicinity of the place in which the church had already been commenced for the use of the missionaries. The house was enlarged at differ- ent times, and is now the priest's house.
Continuing, Bishop Salpointe says :
"On their arrival at Tucson the priests sent from Santa Fe took their destinations according to what had been determined by their Bishop, the Right Rev. J. B. Lamy. The Rev. J. B. Sal- pointe had been sent as parish priest of Tucson, with the faculties of Vicar Forane for the Terri- tory; the Rev. Francis Boucard, as assistant priest of Tucson, and the Rev. Patrick Birming- ham as parish priest of Gila City, the name of which has been changed since to that of Yuma. After a couple of weeks spent in Tucson, the Rev. J. B. Salpointe started for Yuma in order to put Father Birmingham in possession of the parish assigned to him by the Bishop. Meanwhile, Rev. Boucard remained in Tucson, having, at the same time, to attend to the San Xavier mission. The journey to Yuma was made on horseback, and mostly by night, in order to avoid the heat of the day. The distance was 300 miles. At about eighty miles from Tucson were seen nu- merous small villages of the Pima Indians, at a short distance from the Gila River.
"In 1866 Tucson numbered about six hundred inhabitants, almost all Mexicans. There was no other church but the small house spoken of be-
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fore, which Father Machbeuf had used as a chapel at the time of his visit to Arizona in 1859. As already stated, a church had been commenced in the town by Father Donato Roghieri. The two Jesuit Fathers who succeeded this priest had some work done on the same building, but left it unfinished, the walls being only eight or nine feet high. The first care of the priest recently put in charge of the parish was to see how he could have the church completed. He found in the inhabitants a truly good disposition to help him in this work. Contributions were asked again and again, and what they brought was enough to have the walls of the structure raised to a suitable height. This was only the easiest part of the work. The real difficulty consisted in providing the building with a roof, and to think of purchasing the necessary quan- tity of lumber at twenty-five cents a foot, would have been simply thinking of an impossibility, as the people had already overtaxed themselves for the building of the walls.
"At the request of the priest a few men vol- unteered to go with their wagons to the Santa Rita Mountains, about twenty-five miles south- east of Tucson, to ascertain whether good timber could be had from there or not. On the ap- pointed day five men, having the parish priest at their head, started for the mountains. The next day they reached as far as the road would permit, and from this point it could be seen that there were plenty of good pine trees, but all far up on the tops of the peaks, and no practicable way could be found to bring them down to where they could be loaded on the wagons. For this reason the expedition failed almost entirely,
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though it was thought that another trial, with a suitable force of men, might prove successful. The wagons were loaded with whatever pieces of lumber could be cut in the vicinity of the camp, and the party moved at once for the re- turn to Tucson. After consideration, the pro- ject of a new attempt in the Santa Rita Moun- tains had to be abandoned, as it would be too expensive to build practicable roads.
"In the meantime the warm season had broken out, and it was felt that the house thus far used as a church, was untenable during the holy of- fices. It became necessary to have a kind of temporary roof laid on the sanctuary of the new church, so that masses could be said early on Sundays with more comfort for the priests and for the faithful.
"On his return from Gila City the Rev. Sal- pointe went to San Xavier to install Mr. Vincent in the functions of school teacher for the Papago Indians. The school lasted only a few months, owing to the carelessness of the Indians in regard to the education of their children. The teacher was then removed to Tucson, where there ap- peared better prospects for a good school. In- deed, Mr. Vincent found there pupils enough to occupy his time. The only difficulty was that the school had to be taught, for a time, in the priests' house, which consisted of but one room 15 by 22 feet, and a little alcove. For about six months the room had to be used alternately as parlor and schoolroom, and sometimes as dor- mitory when the weather did not allow sleeping outdoors. The furniture of the priests' house comprised three chairs, a writing table, and a pigeon-hole case for papers, the whole of which
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