USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. IV > Part 20
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had been left in care of W. S. Oury by Father Bosco, for his successors. The bedding articles of the missionaries were as yet the blankets they had brought for camping out, and these could be easily rolled up and placed in the alcove for the daytime.
"Four months had elapsed since Rev. Birming- ham had been stationed at Gila City, and nothing had been heard of him. The lack of a regular mail service was thought to be the explanation of this protracted silence, but at last news came that the priest had left his mission on account of sickness and gone to California in order to improve his health. This was a reason for the Rev. Salpointe to look for the first oppor- tunity of a caravan, and to start for Gila City, leaving, as before, the Rev. Boucard in charge of Tucson and of San Xavier. He reached the mission on Sunday morning after seven days of travel, mostly on horseback. He said mass and preached as usual, but fell sick in the afternoon with chills and fever, a disease which very likely he brought from Tucson, where it prevailed, and which kept him four months in the locality. During this length of time the priest was given hospitality and all possible care in the house of Jose M. Redondo, one of the principal citizens of the place. The missionary thought seriously that he could not get over the sickness, which was increasing in him every day, and had no desire but an opportunity of making his confes- sion and receiving the last sacraments of the church before departing from this world, but he could not even entertain any hope for such a blessing, as he was separated from all priests by
f
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300 miles of dangerous roads, almost without communications.
"At last the fever subsided, and, after a short convalescence, the priest was able to leave on horseback for a visit to La Paz, an inhabited place about seventy-five miles above Gila City, on the Colorado River. During his stay at Gila City the Rev. Salpointe had a flat roof put on a small church, the walls of which had been built by the people at the request and under the di- rection of the Rev. Birmingham. The popula- tion of this locality was about 1,000 inhabitants. The town owed its start to the discovery of gold placers, made in May, 1854, at Laguna and at Picacho, fifteen and twenty miles, respectively, from the town. The first settlers of this part of the country, after the discovery of the placers, were the Redondo and the Contreras families, who had already worked in the California mines.
"La Paz, which was founded at about the same time as Gila City, counted in 1866, a little over four hundred inhabitants. It had been a prosperous mining town, but, at the date just mentioned, the mines and placers were ex- hausted, and the people who remained there yet had to depend for their living mostly on cattle raising and cutting wood for the steamboats, which ran on the Colorado by the place, down to the Gulf of California.
"In 1867 was commenced, on the church block at Tucson, a schoolhouse which was to be occu- pied by the Sisters of St. Joseph. This build- ing, as far as the walls were concerned, was put up in a short time with no more difficulty than for the walls of the church. Everyone contri- buted willingly, either money or work for the
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school, as they had done for the church. But the trouble was, as for the church, to find means for the roofing of the house. Here, however, the church was greatly benefited by the school, as the inhabitants, irrespective of religious con- victions, were all desirous of having the Sisters' school started as soon as possible. Nobody ob- jected to the taking up of a new collection for the purpose of procuring lumber for the cover- ing of church and school. This work was en- trusted to a gang of eighteen men, who, for a stated price, took on themselves to go to the mountains and cut the necessary lumber wher- ever they could find it.
"The lumber was prepared in the Huachuca mountains, about eighty miles from Tucson, where there was an easier access to the pine woods than there was at Santa Rita. But, as a proof that the works of God must be tried in many different ways before success can be reached for them, there also arose another trouble. The lumber was ready, but wagons could not easily be procured to send at once for it, and the Apaches were only waiting for the departure of the workmen from their camp to burn the lumber that had been prepared. It became then necessary to look for wagons, and to send them before the coming of the workmen, to move the lumber a distance of twelve or fifteen miles to Camp Wallen, where it would be put under the care of the soldiers until some good opportunity could be found to have it brought to Tucson. This opportunity was offered by the firm of Tully & Ochoa, as soon as they had to carry provisions to Camp Wallen. The so
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long wished for material was at last brought to Tucson towards the end of 1868, and delivered, free of charge, where it was needed. The church was covered first; as for the school the Sisters who were to take charge of it, could not come before May, 1870, and this delay gave plenty of time to complete their house before their coming. "The life of the priests in Arizona, for some years from 1866, was one of hard work and privation. The frequent and long journeys in a country infested by wild Indians made it dangerous for them even to go a few miles out of their residence. Whenever the mail came in, it brought invariably the news of people having been murdered here or there by the Apaches, so that, when a journey had to be undertaken, one would think of it for days and weeks in advance, fearing that he might not come back to his home. This was expressed by a mission- ary who used to say : 'When I have to leave my house for a visit to the distant settlements of my missions, I write to my mother as if it were for the last time.'
"Speaking for himself, the writer of these notes, who, during the nineteen years he spent in Arizona, had to travel in all directions through the Territory, always experienced a kind of painful apprehension for a few days be- fore starting on a long journey, though he must say he had never any trouble from the Indians in Arizona. He saw their tracks on the road; he was told once by a mail carrier that he (the missionary) had been followed by the Apaches two nights and one day, but was not attacked, very likely because he was known to the savages,
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who did not wish to kill him, but were looking for an opportunity to steal his horses without being noticed. Other missionaries, and es- pecially Rev. Boucard, found themselves in great danger; still none of them had to suffer bv it since 1866. Indeed, they must acknowl- edge that there has been a special Providence watching over them.
"At home the priests were safe as regards attacks from the Apache Indians, but they had sometimes to fight against poverty. The coun- try was very sparsely settled, poor, and desolated by the incessant raids of the savages, and in many localities, by the scourging shaking fever.
"This disease was not new in the country; it was mentioned in 1762 by the author of the 'Rudo Ensayo' under the name of the 'vomito amarillo,' as the plague of the province of Sonora, except along the Gila and Colorado rivers. 'This,' says the same missionary, 'must not be assigned to the climate, which is dry and good, but to the bad condition of the water the inhabitants had to make use of for drinking purposes, which comes generally from swampy places, and runs by shady bottom lands where it must take noxious substances.' Against the disease Father Och used with success the bark of the orange tree, made dust, and taken in a cup of 'atole,' or cornmeal.
"This disease, or the shaking fever as it was called, later, was brought and propagated into Arizona in 1866 by the coming from Sonora of many poor people who fled from their country on account of the war after the intervention of France. The places which suffered most from
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this fever were Tucson, San Xavier, Tubac and the San Pedro settlements. From 1869 the plague abated sensibly, so that in 1870 there were only some scattered cases of it. It is use- less to say that during the three years of the disease, the work of the priests was almost in- cessant, either for sick calls or for accompanying the dead to the graveyard.
"The people were generally inclined to help their priests, but knowing the circumstances in which they were, the missionaries refrained from asking anything for themselves, except when it was absolutely necessary. Those lo- cated at Tucson had for two years to depend for their personal expenses mostly on what they had saved of the money they had received from their Bishop for their journey to Arizona. It must be said, though, that these priests were not extrava- gant in their way of living. Very often they cooked for themselves; for beds they had the clay floor of their room or of the yard, and the blankets they had brought from New Mexico. When they had to visit the scattered settlements, it was necessary for them to wait until some other people would have to travel in the same direction, as they could not afford, many times, to hire a man to accompany them. The scarcity of material resources was felt especially, even later, by the priests who had to start new mis- sions."
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CHAPTER XVI. EARLY SURVEYS.
ARIZONA MADE PART OF SURVEYING DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO - DEPUTY SURVEYOR PIERCE MAKES CONTRACT FOR SURVEY OF CERTAIN LANDS-SELECTS "INITIAL POINT"-MILI-
TARY PROTECTION WITHDRAWN - WORK ABANDONED - PIERCE RECOMMENDS SUBDI- VISION OF SALT RIVER VALLEY-ARIZONA ATTACHED TO SURVEYING DISTRICT OF CALI- FORNIA - CONTRACTS FOR SURVEYS MADE WITH WILFRED F. INGALLS AND GEORGE P. INGALLS-FIRST APPLICATION FOR PRE-EMP- TION OF HOMESTEAD LAND BY JOHN B. ALLEN.
Under the act organizing the Territory of Arizona, it was made a separate surveying dis- trict, and Levi Bashford was appointed the first Surveyor-General. On the 2d day of July, 1864, Congress passed an act attaching Arizona to the Surveying District of New Mexico, then pre- sided over by General John A. Clark, and mak- ing provision, at the same time, for the carrying on of necessary surveying operations within this Territory. On the 15th day of December, 1866, General Clark entered into a contract with Dep- uty Surveyor William H. Pierce for the survey of certain lands in Arizona, for a sum not to exceed seventy-five hundred dollars. Commen- cing at the "Initial Point," which Deputy Sur- veyor Pierce was instructed to select for the starting-point for Arizona surveys, and which consisted of a substantial monument of stones, eight feet in diameter at the base, four feet
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around the top, and eight feet in height, which stood upon the summit of a conical hill some 150 feet in elevation, on the south side of the Gila, opposite the mouth of the Salt, in latitude 33° 22' 57" north, and longitude 120° 18' 24" west, Mr. Pierce pursued his work until the mili- tary protection was withdrawn, and he was com- pelled to quit the field. General Clark was the first to recognize the suitableness of this "Ini- tial Point," for the initiation of the Arizona sur- veys, and touched upon the matter in his official report of 1865. Joseph S. Wilson, then Com- missioner of the General Land Office, replying to the various suggestions contained in that re- port, thus wrote to General Clark on September 11th, 1866 :
"As it is deemed expedient to initiate survey- ing operations in the Territory of Arizona, the recommendation made in your report to this office, under date of May 24, 1865, suggesting that the monument erected in 1851 by the Mexi- can Boundary Commission, situated at the con- fluence of the Gila and Salt Rivers, be used as the initial point, is concurred in by this office; from that point you will establish the base and meridian lines for the public surveys in Arizona, calling this special meridian by the name of the Gila and Salt River Meridian."
With one or two exceptions, all of the public surveys in Arizona are initiated from this point, which lies within the present boundaries of Mari- copa County.
Deputy Surveyor Pierce performed most of his work during the month of January, 1867, and among his assistants were Andrew Napier, Robert Johnson, Albert Ashley, Charles H. Gray,
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Jesse Wilsey, and George Henderson, all of whom took an oath for the faithful performance of their duty before John H. Archibald, at Tuc- son, then Clerk of the First Judicial District, comprising the county of Pima. In describing the country along the Salt River, near which some of his lines extended, Deputy Surveyor Pierce wrote as follows:
"Salt River is, at this season of the year, at least, a large stream, nor do I think that it en- tirely dries. It has, moreover, a very heavy fall of, I should think, twelve to fifteen feet to the mile, which renders it especially valuable for irrigation. I consider this valley-six to ten miles wide, and extending from its mouth up- wards to the mountains about forty miles-as containing some of the best agricultural land I have yet seen in the Territory, and would rec- ommend that it be subdivided at an early day."
As these observations were made in January of 1867, the possibilities for irrigating this val- ley were thus definitely noted almost a year be- fore the first settlers arrived.
Surveyor-General Clark, in his report dated July 19th, 1867, to Joseph S. Wilson, Commis- sioner of the General Land Office, said :
"A contract was entered into with Deputy Surveyor William H. Pierce on the 15th day of December, 1866, for the survey in Arizona of 96 miles of the Gila and Salt River Meridian; 36 miles of the base line and standard and ex- terior township boundary lines, to amount in the aggregate to a sum not exceeding $7,500. Mr. Pierce completed the survey of the meridian from the initial corner north 24 miles, the base
20
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line from the same corner east 36 miles, and the first standard parallel north along the south boundary of township 5 north, east 42 miles, and west 42 miles, when the military protection which had been furnished him was withdrawn, and he was compelled to quit the field, the In- dians infesting the country, rendering it unsafe and impracticable to continue the work without a military escort. At his request, and by your order, Mr. Pierce has been released from fur- ther obligation to prosecute the work under his contract."
Under an act of Congress approved March 3d, 1867, the Territory of Arizona was attached to the Surveying District of California, and on the 29th of March, 1867, all the original archives in the Santa Fe office, relating to the surveying service in Arizona, were transmitted to the Sur- veying District of California, then under the supervision of General L. Upton. The constant demand of the settlers in Arizona for the survey of their lands induced General Upton, soon after assuming charge of the Arizona district, to let several contracts for that purpose.
In the land to be surveyed under these early contracts was included the greater portion of the Salt River Valley. Three separate contracts were entered into by General Upton for the performance of this work ; the first with Wilfred F. Ingalls, bearing date the 18th day of Febru- ary, 1868; the second with George P. Ingalls, bearing date the 29th day of February, 1868, and the third, called a joint contract, was with both of the above named, and bore date of July 10th, 1868. Each of the above contracts was for the sum of seventy-five hundred dollars.
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Wilfred F. Ingalls was a brother, and George P. Ingalls, a cousin, of the Hon. Frank S. In- galls, who, for many years, and up to a few months ago of the present year, 1916, was United States Surveyor-General for the District of Ari- zona.
After being awarded these contracts the Messrs. Ingalls, who then resided near Oakland, California, had a wagon especially constructed for use in the work contemplated; one of the principal features of which was a box-like com- partment built in the rear for the carrying of firearms to be used in case of attack by roving bands of Indians.
Before leaving San Francisco, General Upton had arranged with General McDowell for a mili- tary escort to protect the party in their surveys. They arrived in Yuma in due time and, after having their outfit overhauled at the shop of Chris Horner, the well-known blacksmith and wheelwright, they continued up the Gila, along the overland road, with Maricopa Wells as their destination.
They made no request for a military escort be- for leaving Yuma, where the 14th Infantry was stationed, but made the journey along the Gila accompanied only by a few men. Upon reach- ing Maricopa Wells, the Messrs. Ingalls estab- lished their headquarters at that place, which was, at that time, the most important station between Arizona City (now Yuma) and Tucson.
The two deputies conducted their surveying work in the Salt River Valley under many diffi- culties, the Indians stealing several horses from them, and retarding the progress of their work. At the close of the day's labor the party of sur-
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veyors would make camp near the river, where the only available water supply could be found, and, after they had disposed of their evening meal, would extinguish the camp fires and in the darkness would move the entire camp to higher ground in order to mislead any prowling Indians who might have marked by their fires, the loca- tion of the river camp. Observing this precau- tion at all times, no open attack was made upon the party.
On the 27th of March, 1868, Deputy W. F. In- galls commenced the work of subdividing the township around the Phoenix settlement, com- pleting the same on the 4th day of April. From April 8th to the 16th, he sectionized the township to the east, in which the city of Tempe is now located. During the performance of this work his principal assistants were Robert Bryant, Thomas L. Taylor, Faustino Gonzales and An- tonio Espinosa. Deputy G. P. Ingalls, with his party, consisting of Edward Livingston Bridges, Ridgely Tilden, Canuto Soto and Louis Ganalo, the first two coming with him from California, was also at work in the vicinity. Bridges was later killed in Nevada. It is said that Ridgely Tilden, some years ago, was still a resident of Arizona, living somewhere around the Globe country.
It may be stated in this connection that John B. Allen made the first application for the pre- emption of homestead land in Arizona. Under date of July 27th, 1864, he sent from Tucson to the Surveyor-General of Arizona the following:
"The Surveyor-General of Arizona is hereby notified that, in pursuance of law, I, John B. Allen, of the First Judicial District, in the Ter-
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ritory of Arizona, have pre-empted a tract of land containing one hundred and sixty acres, lying about two miles west of the southwest cor- ner of the Pimas and Maricopas reservation, and enclosing what is known and designated as the Maricopa Wells."
John B. Allen was an old pioneer and a busi- ness man in Tucson. Like all pioneers he had many ups and downs during his life. He was a pioneer merchant of Tombstone, and after that. settled in Florence and represented the Terri- tory several times in the Legislature. He was a man of great energy and force of character; too generous for his own good; universally re- spected on account of his integrity and loyal worth. He passed to his reward about twenty years ago, regretted by a host of pioneers who had known him in those early days which tried the mettle of the hardy adventurer.
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CHAPTER XVII.
THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION.
METHODS OF INDIAN AGENTS-C. B. GENUNG'S ACCOUNT OF JOURNEY TO ARIZONA-PRESENTS GIFTS TO INDIANS-PLACED IN CHARGE OF RESERVATION-TAKES OUT DITCH AND EN- COURAGES INDIANS IN AGRICULTURAL PUR- SUITS - RESIGNS - GOES TO CALIFORNIA TO PURCHASE HORSES FOR INDIANS - PLACES YAVAPAIS ON SAN CARLOS RESERVATION- ABANDONMENT OF DITCH.
The following, contributed by C. B. Genung, shows the difficulties confronting the traveller from California to Arizona, and also gives an account of his experiences as a Deputy Indian Agent. The treachery shown by the Indian agents in general to their wards proves that had the government been careful in the selection of agents and paid them a decent salary, much of the difficulty surrounding the Indian question might have been obviated. At this late day we can, of course, impartially review the situation, and it is the general opinion of those who look over the past from an entirely unprejudiced standpoint, that General Crook was right when he said that the Indians always respected their treaties, and that the white man never did. The story of the treatment of the Indians upon the reservations in those early days will probably never be truthfully recorded. Men were sent out to take charge of these reservations as they were created, and paid a meager salary of fifteen hun- dred or two thousand dollars a year in green-
THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION. 311
backs, then worth from fifty to sixty cents on the dollar, and it goes without saying that men who would take such a position did so, not for the salary paid them, but for the little things that a gentleman might pick up in the way of contracts and general grafting.
As this history progresses there will be many incidents related going to show the wrongs prac- ticed upon the Indians by the agents of the gov- ernment.
Mr. Genung's story is as follows :
"While in San Francisco in the winter of 1866-67, Mr. R. W. Gird, with whom I had been acquainted in Arizona in 1863-64, called upon me at my mother's home, and told me that Mr. George W. Dent, who had just been appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Pacific Coast, wished to meet me and would like to have me call upon him at his hotel, the Cosmopolitan. The following day I called upon Mr. Dent, made myself known, and was introduced to his secre- tary, Mr. Charles Hutchings. Mr. Dent told me that he was preparing to go to Arizona, and had been told by Mr. Gird that I was familiar with the road and was going to the Territory myself. I told him that I was only waiting to have a still finished and crated, and was in hopes to get off on the next steamer that sailed for Wilmington or San Pedro. It was arranged that we would go together, and that day I accom- panied Mr. Dent to Kimball's carriage factory and we picked out a suitable wagon for desert travel. We also went to Main & Winchester's harness shop and bought harness for four horses ; and we all got off on the next steamer, my'
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still being about the last freight loaded before sailing.
"On the steamer I met Levy Bashford and his family, which was composed of Mrs. Bashford and their son Coles, a boy of about ten or eleven years old.
: "Arriving at Los Angeles, Mr. Dent asked me to buy four good horses for him to work to the Territory, and I bought four good ones. Bash- ford, whom I had met in Arizona in 1864 when he came to where Prescott now is with the troops (I bought a pair of boots from him, as he had several cases of boots that he had brought from the East, and that is how we became acquainted), had expressed a desire to accompany us to the Territory. I was in a hurry, but decided to wait for Bashford to get ready as Dent was will- ing. So we waited two or three days for Bash- ford to find an outfit that would suit him. I then started by stage for San Bernardino, where my horses were on pasture since the year before, when I came from Arizona.
"Bashford came through to San Bernardino with two horses, and there bought another pair from a brother of Charles D. Poston, who had the first mail contract from San Bernardino to La Paz. The first day our train reached Newt. Noble's ranch-thirty miles-where we stayed all night. At San Bernardino Dent had hired a man to drive his team through, and had prom- ised him and his partner work after they got to the Colorado River Reservation, but at Noble's ranch we heard that the Apaches had been depre- dating on a large scale in the Territory, so the driver of Dent's wagon struck for higher wages. Dent asked me what to do about it, and I told
THE COLORADO RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION. 313
him to let them both go, and I would drive his team through.
"The team was full of life and hard to handle, and the driver thought he had Dent in a tight place, but he was mistaken. I tied my horses behind Bashford's wagon, and got up on to the driver's seat in Dent's wagon after Dent had settled with his driver. The two men were holding the leaders when I got up there to take the lines, and as soon as I picked up the lines I noticed that the two men had buckled the lines into the halter rings on the leaders instead of into the bridle bits. I covered them with my forty-five, and they quickly put the lines where they belonged. Had I not noticed the trick, we would have had a smashup, for the horses started on the jump. Noble's house was on the edge of a canyon which the crooked road led down into, and it was a rough place to handle a run- ning team.
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