By REV. SHELDON JACKSON, D. D.
Arizona is a land of constant surprises. In its natural phenomena it
is the paradise of the scientist, antiquarian, and tourist. Its deep
cañons are the open book of geology; its vast prehistoric ruins alike
stimulate and baffle the antiquarian, and its marvelous scenery, its
flora, remnants of a strange people, and ancient architecture, will
attract thousands of tourists.
The first portion of the United States to be settled by Europeans, it
is the last developed of all our territories save Alaska.
Possessing the oldest civilization, it is just coming into contact with
the new. Railway trains rattle and palace cars glide past prehistoric
ruins.
With scarcely a place in history, it has been the theatre of many
stirring events for three centuries: the battleground of races and
civilizations.
It is preëminently the land of romance. It breaks upon the world and is
connected with the waning of the great empire of the Montezumas.
In the early enthusiasm of American exploration it is linked with
fabulous stores of silver. When questioned as to the source of all his
great wealth, Montezuma was accustomed to point to the north. Rumors
were rife of the northern cities of Civola (cities of the bull) and
Chichiticala, with their fabulous wealth; of wonderful rivers, with
their banks three or four leagues in the air; of races of highly
“civilized Indians, and beautiful women, fair as alabaster.”
The very name “Arizona” (silver land) fired the avarice of the Spanish
heart. The spark to set this enthusiasm on fire was supplied by the
arrival in 1536 at Culican, in Sinaloa, of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca,
with three companions, all that were left of the ill-fated expedition
of Narvaez and his three hundred followers.
During nine years of untold hardship and adventure, without compass
or chart, through an unknown wilderness of woods, swamps, and arid
plains, and hostile tribes, they crossed the continent from Florida to
California, and made known a new region and people.
His description of the “seven cities of Civola,” excited alike the
warrior and the priest. New conquests and fabulous wealth, and new
fields for the Church started into existence expeditions of discovery
and conquest. On the 7th of March, 1539, Padre Marcos de Nizza, a
Franciscan monk, accompanied by Estevanico, a negro attendant, started
in search of the “seven cities.” They passed through the land of the
Papagoes and Pimas, traversed the valley of Santa Cruz, and finally
came in sight of one of the pueblos (probably Zuñi). The negro having
gone in advance with a party of Indians and been murdered, the monk did
not enter the pueblo, but returned to Culican.
The viceroy, Mendoza, then projected two expeditions, one by sea, under
Fernando de Alarcon, and the other by land, under Vasquez de Coronado.
This latter expedition started in April, 1540, with a thousand men,
mainly Indians. The expedition penetrated through Arizona to the Pueblo
villages on the Rio Grande, and northward to the fortieth degree of
latitude.
In 1582, Antonio de Espejo explored the valleys of Little Colorado, the
Verde and Rio Grande, discovering valuable mines of silver.
On September 28, 1595, Juan de Ornate asked for permission and
assistance in establishing a Spanish colony in the new country, which
was granted, and many flourishing missions and settlements sprang up.
In 1680 the pueblos of New Mexico, and the Apaches, of Arizona, arose
in rebellion and drove the Spanish from the country.
In 1698 a Jesuit missionary, Eusebius Francis Kino, left his station
at Dolores, and journeying northward, commenced missions among the
Cocopahs and Yuma Indians. Previous to this the Jesuit fathers seem to
have established the missions of St. Gertrude de Tubac, San Xavier del
Bac, Joseph de Tumacacori, San Miguel Sonoita, Guavavi, Calabassus,
Arivica, and Santa Ana. The cupidity and cruelty of the priests seemed
so great, that in 1757 the Indians rebelled, destroying the missions
and killing most of the priests.
In 1764 an unknown Jesuit priest (probably Jacobi Sedalman) visited the
country, penetrating as far north as the Verde.
In 1769 the Marquis de Croix had fourteen priests sent out to replace
those killed by the Indians.
On the 20th of April, 1773, two priests, Pedro Font and Francisco
Garcia, left Central Mexico, and the following spring explored the Gila
River from Florence to its mouth.
In 1776-7 two Franciscan priests, Sylvester Velez Escalente, and
Francisco Atanaco Dominguez, traversed Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and
California. In 1776 there were eighteen missions in Arizona. At this
time religious exploration seems to have largely ceased.
In 1773 the Spanish held the country south of Tucson, then called
Tulquson. Unwilling to leave the rich silver mines, that brought such
treasure to the Church, the priests and Spanish settlers gathered
around them in their half religious and half military missions; again
and again returned to the country, only to be again driven out by
the Apaches, so that more than half the priests sent to Arizona were
killed by the Indians. And yet the missions, through the fidelity of
the Pima and Papagoes, held their own until the revolution for Mexican
independence. From that time forward they languished, until suppressed
by a decree of the Mexican government in 1827.
In 1824 Sylvester and James Pattie, father and son, from Bardstown,
Kentucky, made up a party of one hundred adventurous frontiersmen to
trap on the headwaters of the Arkansas. After many adventures in New
Mexico the party broke up, and a few of them attempted to cross Arizona
to the Pacific. Upon reaching San Diego they were imprisoned, and the
father died in prison.
Pauline Weaver, of White County, Tennessee, penetrated Arizona as early
as 1832.
As one of the results of the Mexican War, the portion of Arizona north
of the Gila River was ceded to the United States February 2, 1848, and
the southern portion acquired by the Gadsen purchase of December 30,
1853.
The discovery of gold in California in 1849 made Arizona a highway for
the adventurous spirits that pressed across the continent to establish
an empire on the Pacific coast. In 1855 the boundary survey was
completed by Major Emory and Lieutenant Michler.
In August, 1857, a semi-monthly line of stages was put on between
San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, California. This was followed in
August, 1858, by the celebrated Butterfield Overland Express, making
semi-weekly trips between St. Louis and San Francisco—time twenty-two
days. This was run with great regularity until the rebellion in 1861.
By act of Congress in 1854 Arizona was attached to New Mexico, and a
commissioner appointed to survey the boundary.
In 1854 Yuma was laid out under the name of Arizona City. In 1857 a few
mining settlements began to spring up in the Mohave country. In 1859
a newspaper was published for a short time at Tubac. The country was
nominally a portion of New Mexico, but Santa Fe was far away and the
Apaches ruled the land.
In 1857 and again in 1860 efforts were made in Congress to secure the
establishment of a separate territorial organization.
On the 27th of February, 1862, Captain Hunter with a band of one
hundred guerrillas reached Tucson and took possession of Arizona for
the Confederate government. The miners fled the country. The Apaches
fell upon them, murdering many of them by the way. The Mexicans rushed
across the border and stripped the mines of their machinery and
improvements, and the country was deserted.
Spurred by the necessities of the case Congress organized the Territory
of Arizona, February 24, 1863. From that time to 1874 the history of
the Territory was one of fierce struggle with the Apaches, whose power
was finally broken by General Crook, when scarcely a warrior capable of
bearing arms was left living.
And yet the wild career of the fierce Apache was not an unmingled evil.
He kept back the Spanish settlements and thus prevented the land from
being covered with large Spanish grants, which are proving so injurious
to the adjoining countries of New Mexico and California.
Since the settlement of the Apache the progress of the country has
been steady and uninterrupted, and especially rapid since the advent
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, in 1878-9. By the census of 1880 it
has 40,400 population as against 9,658 in 1870, besides some of the
semi-civilized tribes of Moquis, Pima, Papago and Maricopa Indians.
These tribes have from the beginning been the friend of the white man,
and in many critical periods the white man’s only protection from the
incursions of the wild Apache.
During the earlier days of California emigration many a man lost and
perishing on their plains was taken to their homes, nourished into
strength and sent on his way rejoicing—for all of which they have never
received any adequate return from the American people or government.
Schools have lately been established among them by the Presbyterian
Church.
The Indian population in the Territory numbers 20,800. In 1880 there
were six banks and nineteen newspapers—six of which were dailies.
The Roman Catholics had five churches and seven priests. The Mormons
thirty-five churches, one hundred and seventy-eight high priests
and five thousand members. The Presbyterians two churches and two
ministers. Protestant Episcopal one church and one minister.
In 1882 the Protestant working force in the Territory consisted
of half-a-dozen Methodist ministers, two or three Baptists, two
Episcopalians and three Presbyterians.
In 1880 there were 3,089 school children, and the school expenditures
amounted to $21,396. The production of gold and silver in 1880 was
$4,500,000. In the same year there were 145,000 head of cattle and
1,326,000 head of sheep in the country.
Arizona has an area of 114,000 square miles—about as large as all
New England and New York combined. The unbroken ranges of mountains
that sweep down between California and Nevada and through Utah and
Colorado, in Arizona are broken up into detached ranges. Among the
more remarkable of these ranges are the Peloncillo, Pinaleno, Santa
Catarina, Santa Rita, Dragoon, Chiricahuas, Mogollon, White, San
Francisco, Peacock, Cervat, and Hualapais. They generally have a
northwest and southeast course, with long narrow valleys between them.
The two great rivers are the Gila and Colorado, with their principal
tributaries, the San Juan, Little Colorado, Bill Williams, Rio Verde,
and Salt rivers. The Colorado has the most remarkable cañon formation
in the known world. The valleys of the San Juan, Little Colorado,
Salt, and Gila rivers are agricultural valleys, with millions of acres
of great fertility, producing wheat, barley, oats, cotton, tobacco,
lemons, oranges, grapes, figs, etc., of which over two hundred
thousand acres are now under cultivation. Portions of the valleys of
Santa Crux and Gila are cultivated by the Indians. Upon the Little
Colorado are many settlements of Mormons.
In the western and southwestern sections are large areas of desert
land, intensely warm in summer. The northern and eastern sections are
at a higher altitude, and possess a delightful climate. The climate is
remarkably healthy, and with the coming of railways will be greatly
sought by invalids. The Southern Pacific Railroad crosses the southern
section of the Territory from west to east, and the Atlantic and
Pacific the northern portion from east to west, while a branch line of
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe connects the southern portion with
the Gulf of California at Guymas.
The great industry of the country is silver mining, building up
flourishing districts at Tombstone, Globe, Prescott, and other places.
Gold, copper, and lead also abound.