USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Vol. VI > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
61
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The ownership of the location of the Silver King claim was then equally divided between the four survivors of the party of five, each holding one-fourth. The mine was worked continuously for many years, and was one of the greatest producers in the Territory. Its ore was milled about ten or twelve miles from the mine, but Florence was really the shipping point, and benefitted very largely through its proximity to the Silver King Mine. Here supplies were bought and the rich ore shipped to San Fran- cisco for reduction and refining. The story goes on :
"One day in 1882 an aged man came slowly into the thriving settlement at Picket Post, and with great interest wandered about the Silver King Mill, where twenty stamps were pounding out silver from the rock. The man was evi- dently in need of help, and soon went to the office of the company and announced himself as Sullivan, the old soldier, the original discoverer of the vein, and humbly asked for work. Al- though long before he had been given up as dead, and very few of his old acquaintances survived, he was identified beyond a doubt, and was im- mediately taken into the company's service by the day. His story was briefly told as follows : On leaving Mason's ranch he crossed the wide deserts to the westward as far as the great Colo- rado river, and beyond it into California. Be- ing penniless he had sustained himself by working as a farm hand in California. Always hoping to obtain sufficient means to return to Arizona and secure the benefits of his discovery, he had labored on year after year, looking
62
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
vaguely forward, and keeping the secret of the locality to himself, until one day he heard of the discovery of the rich deposit of silver by Mason and others. He was convinced that the place had been found, and that he had lost his chance of making the location for himself."
The neighborhood of Florence was, for a long time, the scene of Apache troubles until a de- cisive issue was made in the early seventies, in which their power was forever broken in that region. General Stoneman was stationed, with several companies of United States soldiers, at Picket Post, the present site of the Silver King Mills, thirty miles north of Florence, in the Superstition Mountains. The post was in a valley, on Queen's Creek, easily overlooked from a high ledge of the mountains known as Tor- dillo Peak, and all of Stoneman's movements were noted in the inception. On top of the mountain was a rancheria of Apaches. These occasionally poured down some unknown path- way upon the settlers along the Gila Val- ley, stealing, burning, and killing, and when pressed by troops, would vanish in the canyons. The location of the village was suspected, from a solitary Indian now and then seen perched upon these peaks, watching proceedings at the post, from which his station was inaccessible. All attempts by Stoneman to get at them were fruitless. At length, emboldened by their suc- cesses, they raided a ranch near Florence, and drove away a band of cattle. The Florentines armed and followed, till, after several days of patient pursuit, they found the trail that led to the rancheria. The Indians, doubtless feeling
1
63
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
secure in this fastness, neglected to post videttes, and thus the Florentines were enabled to steal upon them by night, and at daybreak attacked the rancheria, which was situated only a few yards back from the brow of the bluff overlook- ing Pickett Post. The Indians seeing they were surrounded, fired a few shots, then threw down their guns, and went to meet the approaching Florentines, with hands raised in token of sur- render ; but the latter seeing their advantage, and remembering that mercy to them was cruelty to the defenseless families on the Gila, deter- mined to make the most of the situation and continued firing upon them. When about two- thirds had fallen, seeing no chance for quarter, the remainder ran to the bluff, where their videttes had been so long stationed to watch Stoneman, and threw themselves over, striking the rocks two hundred feet below. The Floren- tines could see their mangled remains from the place where they sprang over. Not a single warrior escaped, but the women and children were turned over to General Stoneman. About fifty bucks went over the bluff.
The above, condensed from Elliott's History of Arizona, is undoubtedly the fight which Cap- tain Walker, in command of a company of Pimas, had with the Pinal Apaches. It is doubtful whether more than three or four white men were in this expedition.
From Elliott's History is also taken the fol- lowing :
"Near the town of Florence is Primrose Hill, a solitary cone-like peak, that rises from the mesa to the height of many hundred feet. That
64
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
queer genius, Chas. D. Poston, who some years ago, was a delegate in Congress from this Ter- ritory, for some reason best known to himself, conceived the idea of building upon its apex a temple to the sun, and establishing the religion of the Gheber or Parsee, and went so far as to spend several thousand dollars constructing a road to the top, upon which he planted a flag, bearing a huge sun disk upon its ample folds. At this point, funds gave out, and the project ended. Though the flag is gone, the road may be seen to-day, winding around, a trailing niche in the precipitous sides of the hill, making a complete circuit before the top is reached. He was, for a time, in correspondence with the Par- sees of India on the subject. It is known as Poston's Folly.
"Primrose Hill stands on a mesa more than usually sandy and bleak. Coupled with this scheme of the sun temple was another, not less startling and original. It was to establish here, upon the choya cursed, sand made mesa, an ostrich farm. What the birds were to eat, be- sides pebbles, tarantulas, and choya burrs, is a problem which Mr. Poston never divulged to the public. Two as wild whims never entered human brain, and the regret is that he was not able to carry them out, so that the world could have seen the logical end. With their comple- tion, his professions would have been sufficiently varied, embracing delegate in Congress, ostrich farmer, and Parsee priest."
Maricopa Wells was never embraced within the boundaries of Maricopa County, but, being so closely identified with the prosperity of the
65
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
settlements along the Gila and the Salt Rivers, its history is not out of place here. It was a point in Central Arizona from which all parts of the Territory were reached. Here came the shipments from California to be distributed to the different military posts of Pima County; and here was marketed great quantities of grain and other produce, raised by the Maricopa and Pima Indians. It was one of the stations built by the old Butterfield Stage Company, which ceased operations and abandoned its posts throughout Arizona at the beginning of the Civil War.
Among the early traders of Maricopa Wells, as previously noted, was John B. Allen, who pre-empted a tract of land of a hundred and sixty acres, his pre-emption notice being the first of its kind within the confines of Arizona. Here Mr. Allen established a small store and grain station, which he conducted for some time, and later on Grinnell & Co., also started a simi- lar establishment. Not far from the Wells, Henry Morgan afterwards one of the early Phoenix merchants, had a small trading post, where he bought wheat from the Indians in re- turn for the necessaries of life. At an early day the large mercantile establishment of George B. Hooper & Co., of Arizona City, now Yuma, maintained a branch store at the Wells, where they purchased quantities of grain for their trade. Messrs. Hinton, Carr and Barney, members of that firm, at different times resided there. When the settlements along the Gila and Salt Rivers were well established Maricopa VI-5
66
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
Wells had grown into a place of much impor- tance, it being the largest stage station on the road between Yuma and Tucson. In 1870 the station came into the possession of Larkin W. Carr and James A. Moore, the latter one of the oldest residents of the Territory, coming here from California during the early mining set- tlements.
There was a good wagon road from Phoenix to the Wells from which, before crossing the Gila river, the traveler had a good view of the Maricopa Indian Village. This road also passed Henry Morgan's trading post. Morgan also operated a ferry on this road across the Gila, known as Morgan's Ferry. At the Wells, Carr and Moore had a large store, well filled with goods of every kind; a well of good water which never dried, and around the station was a grassy valley and a mesquite grove. From Maricopa Wells could be seen the stone face of the southern end of the Maricopa Mountains, which had the appearance of the face and head of an Indian, and which the Pimas believed was a profile of their god, Montezuma. It was the custom of these Indians when water became scarce in the Gila River, and short crops seemed imminent, to beseech this god to send rain and snow, that the Gila might again fill up and enable them to raise an abundant harvest of corn and vegetables.
As one neared the station, coming from the west, a still better view could be had of this in- teresting mountain profile. Mrs. Clifford, in her "Overland Tales," speaks of it in the following words :
1
67
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
"Among the most beautiful of all the legends told here, is that concerning this face. It is Montezuma's face, so the Indians believe (even those in Mexico who have never seen the image), and he will awaken from his long sleep some day, will gather all the brave and the faithful around him, raise and uplift his downtrodden people, and restore to his kingdom the old power and the old glory, as it was before the Hidalgos invaded it. So strong is this belief in some parts of Mexico that people who passed through that country years ago, tell me of some localities where fires are kept constantly burning, in an- ticipation of Montezuma's early coming. It looks as though the stern face up there was just a little softened in its expression by the deep slumber that holds the eyelids over the command- ing eve; and all nature seems hushed into death- like stillness. Day after day, year after year, century after century, slumbers the man up there on the height, and life and vegetation sleep on the arid plains below, a slumber never disturbed, a sleep never broken, for the battle cry of Yuma, Pima and Maricopa, that once rang at the foot of the mountain, did not reach Montezuma's ear; and the dying shrieks of the children of those who came far over the seas to rob him of his scepter and crown, fell unheeded on the rocks and deserts that guard his sleep."
Here also the Indians were accustomed to ex- change their grain and other products for bal- lettas, tickets payable in merchandise at the store, and with the prodigality of the untutored race, spent much of their earnings in useless ap- parel, as illustrated by the following :
68
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
The stores always kept a supply of goods unsalable in other localities, but which were greedily purchased by these Indians. Maricopa Charley, who died only a few years ago, at that time a young man, was rather fond of dress parade. According to John F. Crampton, he came into the store one day, then owned by Moore and Carr, and seeing some hoops hanging up, asked what they were. He was told that white ladies wore them beneath their skirts. Mr. Moore showed him how they were fastened around the waist. Charley wore an old cast-off plug hat, and a "G" string. He seemed de- lighted, with the hoops, said: "How much ?" He was told the hoops would cost him $3.50. "I take it." He then pointed to a large green umbrella and asked the price of it, and was told it also was $3.50, and said, "I take it." Then, with the hoops fastened to his waist, and the umbrella hoisted over his head, he placed him- self on dress parade for about four hours, much to the amusement of the whites and the delight of the other Indians.
Maricopa Wells was a place of much impor- tance for many years. After the building of the Southern Pacific, it was a supply point for the Salt River Valley until the building of the Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad, when its glory departed. It is now only a mass of ruins, over- grown with mesquite and other desert plants.
69
SETTLEMENT OF THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
CHAPTER IV.
SETTLEMENT OF THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
DESCRIPTION OF VALLEY-ANCIENT RUINS AND CANALS -- ADVENT OF THE SWILLING PARTY- ORGANIZATION OF THE SWILLING IRRIGATING CANAL COMPANY-TAKING OUT OF CANALS AND PLACING LAND UNDER CULTIVATION-BI- OGRAPHY OF "DARRELL DUPPA" WHO NAMED PHOENIX - DESCRIPTION OF DUPPA'S AGUA FRIA STATION-KILLING OF JAMES NELSON BY "JIM" SMITH-JOHN LARSEN-THOMAS J. L. HOAGUE - FRANK METZLER - JA- COB DENSLING-TOM MCGOLDRICK-OTHER EARLY SETTLERS-EARLY WATER CLAIMS- "THE PHOENIX DITCH COMPANY"_"SALT RIVER DITCH COMPANY"_"PRESCOTT DITCH COMPANY"_"HAYDEN MILLING AND FARM- ING DITCH COMPANY"_"VIRGINIA FARM- ING DITCH COMPANY"-"SALT RIVER FARM- ING DITCH COMPANY"-"MONTEREY DITCH COMPANY"- THOSE WHO FOLLOWED THE SWILLING PARTY-FIRST FLOURING MILLS IN THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
After the location of the capital at Prescott, a journey was made from the capital to Wicken- burg and thence across what is known as the Salt River Valley to the Pima and Maricopa Indian Villages. This valley is about fifty miles in length east and west, and fifteen miles wide from north to south, containing approxi- mately seven hundred and fifty square miles, and over four hundred thousand acres of land, with the Salt River running through it, near
70
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
the center of the valley; a sparkling stream the year round, its banks fringed with cotton- wood and willow; the land level and susceptible of irrigation. The evidences of a prehistoric race were everywhere in evidence, small mounds scattered over the valley, which when uncov- ered, revealed what were formerly houses, made of sun dried brick. adobes. The traces of old canals were also to be seen. The map attached hereto, prepared by Herbert R. Patrick at a later date, gives approximately the courses of these canals. There was nothing at that time to break the solitude. The valley was covered with galleta grass, which was a most excellent fodder for stock.
In the spring of 1867, John Y. T. Smith had a contract to deliver hay to Fort McDowell, which had been established in 1865. He built the first house in the valley as a hay ranch, laid out a road through the valley to Fort McDowell, and had a few cattle grazing near his camp.
In September, 1867, John W. Swilling, whose name appears many times in this history, was travelling from Camp McDowell to Wicken- burg, and stopped at Mr. Smith's hay camp for a few days. He was impressed with the many possibilities attending the irrigation of this fer- tile valley, which appeared almost level, with the waters of the Salt River flowing through it. It seemed an easy task to throw these waters over the fertile desert, which was all that was neces- sary to make this desert valley blossom as a rose. A market for all its products was assured, for grain, at that time, was brought in from Cali-
......
.
ANSIINY
-
sans
ANCIENT
FOOLA
PHOENIX
......
...
ONANK
TIN RIE
.....
TEMPE
.....
MAP OF SALT RIVER VALLEY. ARIZONA SHOWING THE LOCATION OF
LEDCHO.
... ...
A ...... ...... .. .
.......
ANCIENT CANALS AND CITIES.
...
FROM
Tewash > Lra+.
E ..........
-----
LANES W BENHAM
PHOENIX ARIZONA. 1278 TO 18DE
100 THỊ
PHODNIE FREE MUSEUM
TIN 140
CAMA
71
SETTLEMENT OF THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
fornia and from Mexico at great expense in time and money.
The Vulture mine was producing well in gold, and was employing a large force, which with the military posts at McDowell and at Prescott, af- forded a ready market for all that could be pro- duced in the valley.
These facts impressed themselves upon the mind of Swilling, and, upon his return to Wickenburg, resulted in his organizing the Swilling Irrigating Canal Company, with a nominal capital of ten thousand dollars, consist- ing of fifty shares valued at $200 each. Among those who became stockholders in the enterprise were Henry Wickenburg, the discoverer and owner of the Vulture mine, L. J. F. Jaeger, of Yuma, and one Latimer. Both the latter were engaged in hauling from the Vulture mine to the Hassayampa. The others who interested themselves with Swilling in this enterprise, were, for the most part poor men, with nothing but stout hearts and willing hands to forward the enterprise. Soon all preparations were completed and the company of hardy adven- turers started from Wickenburg for their desti- nation, on a winter's day in the early part of December, in the year 1867. The company was in command of the intrepid and optimistic Swilling, and was composed of the following in- dividuals : Peter Barnes, - Chapman, Brian P. D. Duppa, Jacob Denslinger, Thomas J. L. Hoague, James Lee, John Larsen, Frank S. Metzler, Thomas McWilliams, Thomas McGold- rick, Michael McGrath, Antonio Moreas, James
72
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
Smith, John W. Swilling, Lodovick Vander- mark, P. L. Walters, and Joseph Woods.
These were the pioneers who first entered the valley of the Salt River, whose soil is of the rich- est and most productive to be found in the great southwest. They laid the foundation of the agri- cultural community which they called Phoenix, since it was evident from its surroundings that it was being built upon the ashes of a forgotten civilization.
Upon reaching their journey's end, a place was selected for the head of the proposed ditch on the north bank of the river, nearly opposite the site of Tempe. Here, in the early part of December, 1867, the Swilling party started work with a will, but after spending about $500 in construction work, found it necessary to cut through solid rock, which could only be done at a very heavy expenditure of time and labor, conse- quently this first location was abandoned and a new head started several miles down the river and close to the spot where John Y. T. Smith had previously located his hay camp. This second location proved to be in every way suc- cessful.
In a few months quite a stretch of canal was completed, which was known, locally, as the Swilling Ditch, with a rock and brush dam across the channel of the river to divert the water into the ditch. This rock and brush dam was only temporary and cheaply constructed since every rise in the river washed it away and it had to be replaced. This ditch, afterwards known as the Salt River Canal, according to the
73
SETTLEMENT OF THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
"Miner" was intended to be from ten to twelve miles in length.
In the early part of 1868 ground was pre- pared for cultivation, and water for irrigation was ready about March of that year, enabling a few of the settlers to harvest small crops of corn and barley during the summer. Accord- ing to James M. Barney, the first fields to be put in cultivation were owned by Charles L. Adams and "Frenchy" Sawyer, the former having, some years before, been the founder of a flour- ishing little settlement near the Gila River, called Adamsville.
The first crops proved the fertility of the soil, and quickly the news spread to other parts of the Territory that the Salt River Valley offered inviting opportunities to the farmer and home builder, and many emigrants were soon headed that way.
With an abundant supply of water at hand the land placed under cultivation increased rapidly. Within a short time after the first settlement, here was located the largest and most promising agricultural community in the Territory, a veritable oasis in the desert.
A biographical sketch of John W. Swilling has been given in a previous volume of this history, but it might not be amiss to give a short sketch of other members of this pioneer party, the most of which is gathered from in- formation given me by James M. Barney of the Surveyor General's office at Phoenix, who has been very industrious in gathering data concern- ing this valley and the Territory for many years :
74
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
To Brian P. D. Duppa, known to old timers as Darrell Duppa, a prominent member of the Swilling party, belongs the honor of suggesting the name of "Phoenix" for the settlement.
Duppa was an Englishman of good family and scholarly attainments, and had come to Ari- zona at an early day, about 1863, from Cali- fornia.
Regarding the name of the Salt River settle- ment, and casting at the same time a horoscope of its future, Sylvester Mowry, wrote as follows in October of 1870:
"The man who first named the present settle- ment did so with a last gasp at his classics, call- ing it 'Phoenix,' and did well in so doing. To- day's civilization rises from the ashes of the past. It is doubtful if the new will surpass the old masonry, water ditches or pottery, but it will infinitely go beyond it in production, in re- finement, in the useful arts, in population, and in the space that it will fill in the history of Ari- zona and that of the American continent."
Herbert R. Patrick, of Phoenix, gives the fol- lowing personal description of Darrell Duppa.
"Duppa, like most men of his race, was tall and inclined to slenderness, had thin features, a rather poor complexion, while he wore his hair, which was inclined to curl, somewhat long."
But little is known of Duppa's early history, although it is said by Mr. John McDerwin, in 1914 a resident of Mohave County and at one time among Duppa's intimate friends, "that the latter was the son of an English nobleman and, at an early day had entered the English army, reaching the rank of Colonel
75
SETTLEMENT OF THE SALT RIVER VALLEY.
in that organization; that while still occupying this rank he had trouble with a brother officer of the same grade, which resulted in a duel, his opponent being killed; that Colonel Duppa then resigned his military commission and left his native land, finally coming to America; that his relatives and friends later made every effort they could to induce him to return to the home- land, without success; that he was what is com- monly called a 'remittance man,' receiving from England the sum of $3,000 every four months through Dr. O. J. Thibodo, at one time a prac- ticing physician and druggist of Phoenix."
Like most of the early residents of Arizona, Duppa was somewhat extravagant in his habits, and oftentimes, it is said, his rather large remit- tance was spent long before it reached him.
Coming with the first settlers, Duppa squatted upon a piece of land in the valley, and farmed it for several seasons. On February 1st, 1871, he settled on the quarter section immediately to the west of Jake Starar's place, which he afterwards sold to John B. Montgomery, and it was later known as Montgomery's addition to the city of Phoenix.
He next conducted what was called the "Agua Fria Station" on the Phoenix-Wickenburg road, which was known to travellers for its good appointments. Here he had much trouble with roving bands of hostile Indians and once, in March, 1872, when out cutting hay at some dis- tance from the station with one of his Mexican helpers, they were attacked by a band of four- teen savages, and in the fight which followed Duppa was wounded in the leg. In John G.
76
HISTORY OF ARIZONA.
Bourke's "On the Border with Crook, " is found the following description of Duppa's Agua Fria Station :
"The antipodes of Townsend's rancho, as its proprietor was the antipodes of Townsend him- self, was the 'station' of Darrell Duppa at the 'sink' of the same Agua Fria, some fifty miles below. Darrell Duppa was one of the queerest specimens of humanity, as his ranch was one of the queerest examples to be found in Arizona, and I might add, in New Mexico and Sonora as well. There was nothing superfluous about Duppa in the way of flesh, neither was there anything about the station that could be re- garded as superfluous, either in furniture or or- nament. Duppa was credited with being the wild, harum-scarum son of an English family of respectability, his father having occupied a posi- tion in the diplomatic or consular service of Great Britain, and the son having been born in Marseilles. Rumor had it that Duppa spoke several languages, French, Spanish, Italian and German; that he understood the classics, and that, when sober, he used faultless English. I can certify to his employment of excellent French and Spanish, and what had to my ears the sound of pretty good Italian, and I know, too, that he was hospitable to a fault, and not afraid of man or devil. Three bullet wounds, re- ceived in three different fights with the Apaches, attested his grit, although they might not be ac- cepted as equally conclusive evidence of good judgment. The site of his 'location' was in the midst of the most uncompromising piece of desert in a region which boasts of possessing
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.