Arizona Genealogy

From the very commencement of the American occupation of Arizona, the Indian began to give trouble. The United States had pledged itself, as has been seen, by the 11th Article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, to protect the Mexican border as far as possible from Indian encroachments, and, also, whenever Mexican citizens were made captives by the Indians, the United States was to restore them to their homes. This was rather a mammoth undertaking, for at that time, exclusive of the Navajo nation, which was frequently at war with the whites, and which was a part of the Apache […]

The feeling prevailed at this time among the people of Arizona that the only way to effect a permanent peace, was by the slaughter of every Indian capable of bearing arms. Lieutenant Mowry declared that they were as venomous as rattlesnakes and should be treated accordingly. General Carleton issued orders that no buck should be taken prisoner but that the women and children should be spared. On the 14th of January, 1863, according to the Fish manuscript, Captain Shirland was detached, with twenty men of his company, with orders to proceed at once in advance of the main body, and

During this time many outrages were committed by the Indians upon those emigrating into California, upon what is now Arizona soil, the most notable of which is known as the Oatman Massacre, which occurred at what is now known as “Oatman Flat,” about a hundred miles east of Yuma. Royce Oatman with his wife and seven children left Independence, Missouri, with a company of some fifty persons, in August 1850. Part of the company remained in Tucson, and the rest at the Pima Villages. Oatman left the latter place with his family in February, 1851, to make the trip alone

Arizona – The name is significant. Its derivation is uncertain; all that is known of it is that in the latter part of the seventeenth century it was given to a range of mountains across the border in Northern Sonora, in what was then known as Pimeria Alta, and there-after was applied to the territory now embraced within the boundaries of the “Baby State.” Its history is in two parts: One, the story of a vanished race, who left behind them a record of achievement in cavate dwellings, the ruins of pueblos, fortifications, abandoned irrigation canals, and hieroglyphics on the

As we have heretofore seen, numerous attempts had been made by citizens of what is now Arizona, and also citizens of New Mexico, to organize the Territory of, Arizona, which attempts, up to the winter of 186263, did not seem to have been taken seriously by Congress, this territory being considered practically worthless and the home of the wildest set of Indians that ever cursed any portion of the continent, and it is doubtful whether the Territory would have been organized had it not been for the discovery of gold and silver within its boundaries. The first discoveries, as we

Felix Aubrey, who was identified with the Santa Fe Trade, was the first explorer of a wagon route over the 35th parallel, he having driven a wagon all the way from San Jose, California, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1854. Aubrey was accompanied by sixty men, and brought with him to Peralta the wagon which was driven the entire distance, thus furnishing irrefutable evidence that both a wagon road and a railroad were practicable to San Francisco over the 35th parallel. His notes of the journey were printed in the Missouri Republican of September 26th, 1854, and it is

Up to 1862, beyond the explorations made by Lieutenant Beale, Felix Aubrey, and others, along the Beale road, nothing was known of Central Arizona, its mines, its forests, and its agricultural possibilities. It was the home of the Apache, the most treacherous and dangerous of all the Indian tribes. The first expedition to explore this section of the country was known as the “Walker Party.” Captain Joseph P. Walker, who commanded the expedition, was an old hunter and trapper. In 1837, and 1838, in company with Jack Ralston, who later died, he discovered in this part of the country a

The first natives of Arizona to submit to Spanish authority were the Moquis, who occupied the territory which at that time was known as the province of Tusayan. These Indians had practically the same habits, customs and government as the Indians of Cibola. They were very intelligent and far advanced in civilization. Their houses were ordinarily three or four stories high, but some were seven stories. Of them, Casteñada says: “They cover their privy parts and all the immodest parts with cloths made like a sort of table napkin, with fringed edges and a tassel at each corner, which they

The journey of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca and his companions, Andres Dorantes, Alonzo del Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan, the Arab Negro slave of Dorantes, across the continent from near what is now Galveston, Texas, to Culiacan and San Miguel, a few miles from the Pacific coast, as published in the Relacion of Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca, and translated by Fanny Bandelier, with an introduction by Ad. F. Bandelier is a story full of romance and adventure, exceeded by none of the early Spanish explorers. These men were the sole survivors of the Narvaez expedition of four hundred men

Exploring parties sent out by the Government, particularly those along the southern part of what is now Arizona, gave some attention in a casual way to the mineral resources of the country, and these reports reaching San Francisco, probably much magnified, gave rise to the organization of the first exploring party sent into what is now Arizona. Sometime in the latter part of the year 1854, a company was formed by Major B. Allen, J. D. Wilson, William Blanding, A. S. Wright, and others, which was known as the Arizona Mining & Trading Company, under the direction of E. E.