USA > Arizona > History of Arizona, Volume I > Part 19
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Silver bullion being rather too weighty for purposes of exchange, the company adopted the Mexican system of "boletas." Engravings were made in New York and paper money printed on pasteboard about two inches by three, in small
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denominations, twelve and one-half cents, twenty-five cents, fifty cents, one dollar, five dol- lars, and ten dollars. Each boleta had a picture by which the illiterate could ascertain its denomi- nation, viz .: twelve and one-half cents a pig; twenty-five cents, a calf; fifty cents, a rooster; one dollar, a horse; five dollars, a bull; ten dol- lars, a lion. With these boletas the hands were paid off every Saturday, and they were taken as currency at the stores, and among the mer- chants in the country and in Mexico. When a run of silver was made, anyone holding tickets could have them redeemed in silver bars, or in exchange on San Francisco. This primitive system of flat money had an excellent effect. Everybody holding these boletas was interested in the success of the mines, and the entire com- munity was dependent for its prosperity upon that of the company. They were all redeemed and retired from circulation.
In the autumn of 1857 a detachment of the First Dragoons arrived in the Santa Cruz Valley, and established Fort Buchanan. The officers were Colonel Blake, Major Stein and Captain Ewell. Coincident with the arrival of the mili- tary on the Santa Cruz was the arrival of a citi- zens' train of wagons laden with supplies- twelve wagons with twelve mules each-belong- ing to Santiago Hubbell, of New Mexico. These wagons took back a return freight of ores from the Heintzelman mine to the steamboat landing at Kansas City, for which they were paid twelve and a half cents a pound. The ores were in rawhide bags, and a ton to the wagon. This was the first shipment of ore from this part of what
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is now Arizona, and was a very long haul for mule teams. On their arrival in the States, they were distributed to different cities for ex- amination and assay, and gave Arizona its first reputation as a producer of minerals. The aver- age was $1500 per ton in silver, besides a good deal of copper.
The first mining machinery brought into Ari- zona was by this company.
Sylvester Mowry, in his address before the Geographical Society, in 1859, said :
"The Heintzelman Mine-so called after the president of the company-bids fair to become more famous than any of the great mines of Old Mexico. From a late letter it is claimed that the ores thus far smelted yield the astonishing average of $950 per ton. I saw this mine in September of last year. About two hundred tons of the ore had already been extracted, and the yield from one small furnace was about one thousand ounces per week. At a cost of $39,000 the company have brought from San Francisco and erected amalgamating works, from which they expect to obtain $3,000 per day-a million a year. This mine has the most extraordinary reputation throughout Sonora. I found, in trav- eling through the state, that almost every shop- keeper knew the value of the ore. It was ob- tained from the miners, who had stolen and sold or exchanged it for goods."
The reduction works of the Heintzelman mine were located on the Arivaca ranch, eight miles distant from the mine, and connected with it by an excellent road. The process used was the European barrel amalgamation for argentifer-
19
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ous copper ores, and was introduced by Mr. Kustel, a German metallurgist, about the year 1859. About one and a half tons per day was reduced. Six dry stamps, a steam arrastra, one reverberatory roasting furnace, four barrels, a retort, and one refining furnace, together with a ten horse-power engine, constituted the works. This was the first time where the barrel process for the treatment of argentiferous ores was used in the United States, and, being experimental, was far from perfect. Lieutenant Mowry, in his " Arizona and Sonora," page 167, says:
"From the results obtained in 1859 on 160 tons of amalgamated ore, it appears that about $24,- 000 worth of silver was produced. The loss of quicksilver equalled one pound (one dollar) for every forty dollars of silver extracted. The consumption of copper was 1480 pounds ; of salt, 32,000 pounds, and of wood, 300 cords. The pro- duction of silver at the Heintzelman mine is esti- mated at over $100,000 (not including large amounts of ore stolen and worked in Sonora)."
Besides these there were many other mines and prospects being worked in that vicinity. Tubac became one of the most prosperous towns in the territory, with a mixed population of four or five hundred, with handsome residences, store- rooms, gardens and fields, and other evidences of civilized life. At Santa Rita, Sopori, and Arivaca, reduction works were employed, and a great deal of bullion was taken out. The ores were rich, easily reduced, and notwithstanding the frequent raids of the Apaches, the work of development went steadily forward until the breaking out of the civil war, when the garrisons
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stationed in the country were withdrawn, and the population left to the mercy of the Apaches and marauding Mexicans, who, believing that the Government of the United States was broken up, crossed the border and carried off what the Apaches did not destroy. Harassed by outlaws and exposed to constant attack from the Apaches, the mining camps were abandoned. "Tubac was reduced to a mass of blackened adobe walls, and in a few short months heaps of deso- late ruins were all that was left of the prosperous mining camps of southern Arizona."
Col. Poston says: "After the abandonment of the Territory by the United States troops, armed Mexicans in considerable numbers crossed the boundary line, declaring that the American Gov- ernment was broken up, and they had come to take their country back again. Even the few Americans left in the country were not at peace among themselves-the chances were that if you met in the road it was to draw arms, and de- clare whether you were for the North or the South.
"The Mexicans at the mines assassinated all the white men there when they were asleep, looted the place, and fled across the boundary line to Mexico. The smoke of burning wheat fields could be seen up and down the Santa Cruz Valley, where the troops were in retreat, de- stroying everything before and behind them. The Government of the United States abandoned the first settlers of Arizona to the merciless Apache. It was impossible to remain in the country and continue the business without ani- mals for transportation, so there was nothing
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to be done but to pack our portable property on the few animals we kept in the stables and strike out across the desert for California.
"With only one companion, Professor Pum- pelly, and a faithful negro and some friendly Indians for packers, we made the journey to Yuma by the Fourth of July, where we first heard of the Battle of Bull Run. Another jour- ney took us across the Colorado desert to Los Angeles, and thence we went by steamer to San Francisco, and thence via Panama to New York.
"It was sad to leave the country that had cost so much money and blood, in ruins, but it seemed to be inevitable. The plant of the company at this time, in machinery, material, tools, provi- sions, animals, wagons, etc., amounted to con- siderably over a million dollars, but the greatest blow was the destruction of our hopes,-not so much of making money as of making a country. Of all the lonesome sounds that I remember (and it seems ludicrous now ), most distinct is the crow- ing of cocks on the deserted ranches. The very chickens seem to know they were abandoned."
Another of the early famous mines located in what is now the State of Arizona was the Pata- gonia, afterwards called the Mowry mine. It was located in the southern spurs of the Patagonia Mountains, seventy-five miles from Tucson, and three or four miles north of the Sonora line. It was discovered in 1857 by a Mexican herder, who sold it to Captain Ewell (afterwards Gen- eral Ewell of the Confederate Army) and Messrs. Brevoort, Douglass, and Johnson, who gave the Mexican a pony and some other traps for the location. In 1859 Colonel Titus and
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Brevoort became the owners by purchase, and in 1860 they sold it to Lieutenant Mowry for $25,000. Lieutenant Mowry associated other parties with him, erected buildings, furnaces, machinery, etc., and worked the mine success- fully until 1862, when he was arrested by order of General Carleton, who was then in command of the Union forces in the territory, was taken to San Francisco, but was never tried on the charge of disloyalty preferred by General Carle- ton. There was much indignation among the people of the territory against General Carleton for the arrest of Lieutenant Mowry, and it was then charged, and is yet, that the arrest was without cause, and made on account of previous jealousies and ill feelings between Carleton and Mowry when they were in the service in former years. Be this so or not, the result of the arrest of Mowry was the ruin of all his hopes of for- tune and affluence. After his release, he went to London for the purpose of selling his mine, and was taken sick and died in poverty. After the death of Mowry, his heirs, who resided in the Eastern States, being either ignorant of the mining laws, or too poor to fulfill the require- ments, neglected to maintain their title, and in the year 1875 the property was relocated by Tucson parties.
While in the possession of the property, Lieu- tenant Mowry developed and worked it quite ex- tensively, expending about $200,000 in the work, and, although the process used by him was not the most economical, or the one best suited to the treatment of the ore, the prices obtained by him showed a net profit of over $100 per ton.
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It is significant that although Lieutenant Mowry was arrested and confined in Fort Yuma for a period of some four months, he was never brought to trial, and no evidence was adduced against him, and at the end of his confinement in Fort Yuma he was unconditionally released. His property was not, however, immediately restored to him, and there may be some truth in his charges, made in an open letter to the New York World, and published April 25th, 1864, which are as follows:
"Nearly two years ago the Mowry Silver Mines in Arizona were seized by a Brigadier- General, whose name shall not disgrace this let- ter, and a marshal of the United States, in the name of the United States. The mines were then producing about $700 per day; in a few weeks they would have been producing $1500 per day, and by the close of the year double that sum.
"By a nice little arrangement between the brigadier-general and the marshal aforesaid, the mines were leased to a third party in the name of the government for $100 per month. Net re- sult to the government: $100 per month, paid by the mine, and charged by the marshal for traveling expenses. Result to the brigadier-gen- eral and marshal: several thousand dollars per month. The worst of the matter is yet to come. No improvements have been made at the mines to increase their product; and instead of their producing, as they can and ought, $5,000 per day, they produce no more than they did two years ago ; and this will always be the case if the govern- ment attempts to work the mines on its own account."
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Such was the encouragement given by the gov- ernment of the United States to the pioneer miners in the western territory which had been acquired from Mexico under the Gadsden pur- chase.
Bancroft says the Mission Fathers never did any mining in Arizona. Hamilton and others claim to the contrary. The following, in refer- ence to the first placer mining in the State of Arizona is taken from Elliott's History of Ari- zona, 1884:
"But there is evidence of still earlier discov- eries and extensive workings. * * * To the north of the Quijotoa Mountains about six miles, there is an area of about three miles square, more or less, of placer ground, which has been extensively worked (from the most reliable au- thority) as early as 1774, by Padre Lopez, a Cas- tilian priest, and up to 1849, when the gold ex- citement of California caused many to leave for the north, the remainder returning to Lower California, whence they had come. The work- ings of the placer are remarkable. The most of the ground is a perfect honeycomb of working shafts from five to twenty feet deep, covering the gold field-so close together that it is almost impossible to ride over the ground without dan- ger. These shafts or pits are connected by un- derground workings, from which the gold was evidently taken. The deepest shafts are those furthest removed from the base of the mountain. Some of the dumps of the deep workings are very large, and have been found rich enough to work with profit, as the methods used by ancient gold miners of that region were so crude and
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primitive that none but the coarse gold was taken. Several parties now working on the dumps are making from $3.00 to $5.00 per day."
Gold placers were discovered on the Gila at what was called Gila City, in 1858, by Jacob Sniveley. Sniveley was Sam Houston's secre- tary when Houston was President of the Lone Star Republic; and commanded a force of two or three hundred men which Texas sent out to operate against the Mexicans on the Santa Fe Trail. This force was captured by the American military authorities and disbanded. Sniveley came to Arizona somewhere about the year 1857. He was a Pennsylvanian by birth, and was killed by the Indians, as will be seen later in this his- tory.
Sylvester Mowry, in speaking of these placers at the time he visited them in 1859, says:
"The facts in reference to the present condi- tion of the Gila gold mines in Arizona are simply these: At a point on the Gila River, about twenty miles from its junction with the Colo- rado, and in a succession of sand hills gold was discovered in September, 1858. The emigrants who were still on their way stopped, and, the news reaching California, others came in. I visited the gold mines early in November, and found about one hundred men and several fami- lies. A town called Gila City had been already laid out, and temporary houses of brush and adobe were in the course of erection. I exam- ined carefully for myself, and found that several men could afford to pay laborers three dollars per day and their board to work for them. I saw more than twenty dollars washed out of
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eight shovelsful of dirt, and this in the crudest manner, and by an unpracticed hand. I saw several men whom I knew well would not have been there had they not been doing well, who told me they had made from $30 to $125 per day each. I purchased about $300 in gold dust out of a lot of more than $2000. A portion of this dust is here, if anyone is curious enough to wish to see it. Several hundred men have gone into the mines since I left Arizona. My letters give me no reason to suppose the mines have given out or show any signs of failure."
Pauline Weaver, the old guide and frontiers- man, discovered the placers at La Paz, on the Colorado River, about the year 1861. He washed out a little of the dirt in a pan, and, not knowing what it was, took it to Yuma and showed it to Jose M. Redondo, who declared it to be gold. Soon thereafter a thriving settlement was estab- lished there, with, Hamilton says, a population of about two thousand souls. These placers have long been worked out.
In 1862, Pauline Weaver, Peeples and Jack Swilling discovered what is known as Weaver Diggings, near Stanton, which was found only by an accident. On the top of a high mountain, flat on the surface, were discovered the richest placers ever found in the State. One of the par- ties having lost an animal, which had strayed upon this table mountain, went in search of it, and discovered coarse gold. The ground was immediately staked out and worked, and yielded, it is said, within a small area, something over a million dollars. Weaver Creek is still worked to some extent.
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In 1861 the Walker party was organized in California for mining explorations in Arizona; after a long and severe trip they arrived in Pres- cott, and began placer mining on Granite Creek and other creeks adjacent to the present town of Prescott. The area of these placers was quite extensive, extending to Turkey Creek and to the Big Bug District. There was a great deal of gold taken from these placers. The full account of this expedition will be given farther along in this history.
Henry Wickenburg discovered what is known as the Vulture Mine in 1863, and probably the most authentic account of this discovery is given in the Prescott Miner of June 6, 1868. This ac- count was written by a correspondent of the Florida Press at Wickenburg from the story as told by Henry Wickenburg himself, and is as follows:
"He (Wickenburg) came in with Bloomfield in 1863, and with another companion. He left that gold seeker in a few weeks. The two men spent long months hunting for gold through the mountains. Wickenburg's companion at length became sick and weary and stayed in camp while Wickenburg prospected the hills. One hot day Wickenburg, weary and faint, sat down on a hill 15 miles from the Hassayampa, the nearest water. His spirits were all but broken and his money spent. He was attracted by the appear- ance of the country, and on examining it, he found his resting-place to be the croppings of a gold-bearing quartz lode, unequaled in these mountains famous for their mines. Wickenburg returned to his companion, who would not credit
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his story. At last they parted; the one to return with Wickenburg's crazy story, Wickenburg to remain, mining his treasure. Here, far from white men, surrounded by hostile Indians, with none but his wife to give him food, Wickenburg remained for seven months, his faith increasing in his discoveries. White men came at last, and found that Wickenburg was right. The mine was taken up, and a shrewd miner, Mr. Phillips, of New York, hurried out, and Henry Wicken- burg sold his discovery, except one-fifth, which he holds, for $85,000.00. Wickenburg, through sharpers and bad investments, has lost the greater part of his fortune, but he has enough in reserve."
In regard to the story of Wickenburg and his discovery of the Vulture Mine, the editor of the Miner saw fit to add a note as follows:
"The above, as far as we know, is correct, with the exception of the wife part. That is news to most of Wickenburg's acquaintances here. The imaginative mind of the writer blundered up that part of it to be sure, as we know Henry to be virtuous."
Reports concerning these discoveries of gold in Arizona which were, no doubt, greatly magni- fied and exaggerated the farther they were car- ried, probably induced Congress to organize the Territory of Arizona, as the Government, at that time, was much in need of gold.
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CHAPTER XVIII. THE NAVAJOS.
LOCATION-OCCUPATION-POSSESSIONS-DRESS - ARMS-BLANKETS-SUPERSTITIONS-EQUAL- ITY OF SEXES-DIVORCE-WOMEN UNCHASTE -NUMBER-FORM OF GOVERNMENT-WAR WITH MEXICANS-NOT DANGEROUS AS WAR- RIORS-DISREGARD TREATIES - EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THEM-COLONEL DONIPHAN-MA- JOR WALKER-COLONEL J. M. WASHINGTON -COLONEL SUMNER -BUILDING OF FORT DEFIANCE-KILLING OF NEGRO BOY JIM- CAMPAIGN BY AGENT YOST, CAPTAIN MCLANE AND CAPTAIN BLAS LUCERO-CAMPAIGN BY COLONEL MILES-CAPTAIN JOHN P. HATCH -INDIANS FURNISHED WITH FIREARMS, SUP- POSEDLY BY MORMONS-COLONEL MILES' SEC- OND CAMPAIGN-CAPTAIN LINDSAY-LIEU- TENANT HOWLAND-TREATY.
The Navajos, when Arizona was taken over from Mexico, were the most populous tribe of Indians. They occupied what is now the north- western portion of New Mexico, and the north- eastern portion of Arizona. For years they had been in a constant state of warfare with the Mexicans, and, to some extent, with the Zunis and Moquis. They were a virile race, further advanced in civilization, and the arts of civiliza- tion, than any of the Apache tribes. They were a pastoral people, and to some extent, an agricul- tural people. Their dwellings then, as now, con- sisted of rude conical huts of poles, covered with
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brush and grass and plastered with mud, which were called hogans. On account of their no- madic habits and certain superstitions, which cause the destruction of their hogans at times, they refused to construct more substantial build- ings. They are of a more peaceful disposition than the other Apache tribes, not being depend- ent upon game for their livelihood. At the time of the American conquest, they possessed about 200,000 sheep, 10,000 horses and many cattle. Their chief crop was corn, of which they some- times raised as much as 60,000 bushels in a year. In 1855 it was estimated that they had 5,000 acres under cultivation. They irrigated very little, but secured crops by deep planting, the corn being placed about eighteen inches under the surface, and earing out soon after it came above the ground. In addition to corn, they raised wheat, peas, beans, melons, pumpkins and potatoes, and had numerous peach and apricot orchards.
They dressed much more comfortably than other Indians. The men wore a double apron coat, like a shortened poncho, opened at the sides and fastened about the waist by a belt. It was of woolen cloth, and frequently much orna- mented. The legs were covered with buckskin breeches, close fitting, adorned along the outer seams with brass or silver buttons, which ex- tended to the knee, and were there met by woolen stockings. The feet were covered with moccasins, and often leggings, reaching to the knees, were worn. The attire was finished by a blanket thrown over the shoulders, as a mantle, and a turban or leather cap, surmounted by a
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plume that gave it the appearance of a helmet. They formerly carried a lance and a shield, which, with their costume, gave them the appear- ance at a distance of Grecian or Roman warriors. The costume of the women was a sleeveless bod- ice loose above, but fitting neatly at the waist, a skirt reaching below the knees, and moccasins, in summer; in winter they added leggings and a blanket. The bodice and skirt were usually of bright colors, the latter terminating in a black border or fringe. The costumes of both sexes have become more or less nondescript of later years, but many still retain their ancient fash- ions. They manufacture all their clothing, in-
cluding their blankets. The blankets have been the wonder and admiration of civilized people for many years. They are very thick, and so closely woven that a first class one is practically water proof, requiring four or five hours to be-
come soaked through. The weaving, which is all done by women, is very tedious, two months be- ing consumed in making a common blanket and sometimes half a year for a fine one. They are worth from fifteen to a hundred dollars, varying with the quality of the wool and the amount of work put upon them. They formerly manufac- tured cotton goods also, importing the cotton balls from Santa Fe, according to Senor Donan- cio Vigil, but this has been discontinued for many years. They make some pottery, similar to that of the Pueblos, from whom they probably learned the art. They have numerous silver- smiths, who work cunningly in that metal, and these have made remarkable advances in the art of late years, since they have added modern tools
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to their kits. They are singularly imitative, and will acquire a practical knowledge of any kind of work in a very short time.
"Their superstitions are peculiar. They never touch a corpse if possible to avoid it. If a per- son dies in a hogan, they either burn it, or pull out the poles and let it fall on the body; if on the open plain, they pile stones over the corpse and leave it. In consequence they do not scalp or mutilate their victims, and, in fact, have lit- tle pleasure in killing, though they have a Spar- tan admiration for adroit thievery. They have a great aversion to the hog, and neither eat its flesh nor permit it to live in their country. This, with a few other peculiarities, has caused some to insist on their Israelitish origin. They are averse to bear meat also, on account of some re- ligious scruple, and seldom kill the animal except it be in self-defense." (Dunn's "Massacre of the Mountains.")
Their treatment of women is entirely different from that of other Indian tribes. The women, in their system of government, are the equal of the men. The equality of sexes is fully respected. The marriage ceremony is very simple, consist- ing of eating a meal together, and the tie is as lightly severed when either party wearies of it. The women hold their property independently, and in case of divorce there is an equitable divi- sion of the community property, and the chil- dren go to the mother. Incompatibility of tem- per is a most excellent ground for separation. A woman is never entirely free until she is married, after which she is well treated and escapes the drudgery which is usually the lot of Indian
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