l! i F 811 F74p A A = A ^^ A ^ »» ss = ____ ^ ^ -JD ^ -^ — JO 5 M ^^ o 2 ^ i> 6g OP -< 2m f\ ^^ = 1 — —I sss 3 = FORBES I PENNINGTONS: PIONEERS ' OF EARLY ARIZONA THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES THE PENNINGTONS PIONEERS OF EARLY ARIZONA A HISTORICAL SKETCH BY ROBERT H. FORBES PUBLISHED BY THE ARIZONA ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1919 /Oif Larcena Pexxingtox (Mks. \\m. F. Scott), about 1872. THE^ENNINGTONS PIONEERS OF EARLY ARIZONA A HISTORICAL SKETCH BY ROBERT H.^ORBE^^ PUBLISHED BY THE ARIZONA ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY 1919 Copyright, 1919, by Arizona Archaeological and Historical Socieiy PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY LANCASTER, PA. 6 I I Fl'-^ ILLUSTRATIONS Frontispiece: Larcena Pennington (Mrs. William F. Scott), about 1872. 1. Old Fort Buchanan, December 7, 1914. 2. The Pennington home on the Santa Cruz in 1861 ; a stone house loop-holed for defense. 3. The old Apache trail, east of Helvetia, Arizona. 4. A scene in Tubac (1915), once the principal town in Arizona. 5. Jane Pennington (Mrs. William Crumpton), about 1885. 6. The ruins of the Sopori ranch house, built on high ground, and looped-holed for defense. 7. The Canoa, an important station in early days, and the scene of many tragedies. 8. The Sopori cemetery showing the graves of James and Ann Pennington. 9. Tumacacori Mission from the Southwest, 1915- MAPS 1. Map of New Mexico and Arizona, 1858, showing old wagon routes. Compiled from maps of the War Department, and other sources. 2. The Ferguson map of Tucson, 1862, showing original Spanish names of streets. Arroyo Street is the original name of Pennington Street. 3. The Foreman map of Tucson, 1872, showing American street names. 4. Sketch map of old Fort Crittenden, with localities named by John H. Cady, once a soldier at Crittenden. Ill 293404 THE PENNINGTONS About the year 1832 two of the common people, Elias Green Pennington of South Carolina and Julia Ann Hood of North Carolina, young and of good courage, joined fortunes for better or worse and turned their faces westward with the tide of emigration that followed in Boone's footsteps across the Appalachian ranges, through the dense forests of Kentucky and Tennessee to the Mississippi. The young people made their first home near Nashville, where they engaged in pioneer farming for about five years. But the West again tempted them; they loaded their household goods and farm- ing tools upon wagons drawn by slow moving oxen, and, with their three young children, Jim, Ellen and Larcena, started for Texas, whose independence had recently been achieved, and whose vast extent and unknown resources attracted the adventurous spirits of that day. After a journey of many camp fires the hopeful and vigorous young family settled on new land near Honey Grove, Texas, about forty miles east of Bonham in Fannin County. Here Pennington remained about fifteen years, farming and freighting from Shreveport and Jefferson to Bonham. The growing family soon increased to twelve children, eight girls and four boys, — an ac- 1 2 The Penningtons tive, resourceful, strong-willed sort, no doubt, — well suited to the exigencies of frontier life, which in Texas at that time was not without danger from the Comanches, and close to the incidents of the Mexi- can War. But as the country became more thickly settled, the growing number of near neighbors, wath their fence-jumping and crop-destroying cattle, annoyed Pennington, who, like most frontiersmen, wanted room, and wild game, and freedom from the disad- vantages of too close association with his fellows. So, leaving his family behind, he cruised to the West and South in search of still another and more secluded home, finally choosing a location about one hundred and fifty miles southwest, near Keechi, not far from the Brazos River. During his absence the mother died and was buried at Honey Grove, leav- ing the family, the youngest a child in arms, in the care of the older children. So, diminished by one, the Penningtons, thirteen in number, again loaded their wagons and restlessly pushed on to a newer frontier. Here they remained three or four years when it was finally resolved, early in 1857, to join a wagon train for Golden California. The train, which was well equipped and provi- sioned, was commanded by one Sutton, the Penning- tons having three wagons drawn by oxen and mules. The road led westward bv easy stages and without misadventure until they encountered the flooded Rio Pecos, which they were obliged to ford. Sturdy Pioneers of Early Arizona 3 Jim, the oldest boy, and his father's right hand man, guided his oxen through the flood, swimming his horse beside them and encouraging the leaders by his speech as only he knew how^ until they dragged the wagons through. A number of cattle driven with the train were drowned at this point, but the most serious damage was to the family Bible and to the children's school books, which were injured by the water. Once safely through, loads were unpacked, water-soaked articles were dried, the wagons repacked and the journey resumed. From the Pecos the route lay through Paso del Norte, up the Rio Grande to Me- silla, through Cooke's Canyon and westward across rolling plains to the boundary of present-day Ari- zona, into which they passed through Doubtful Canyon. From this point they crossed the San Simon Valley, threaded the long and dangerous x'\pache Pass, pushed on across the Sulphur Spring valley to Dragoon Springs, crossed the San Pedro, probably south of modern Benson, and finally, in June, 1857, reached Old Fort Buchanan on the So- noita, where Captain Ewell was then in command. The road over which the little caravan passed was a dangerous one, a guard always being placed at night, with a double guard at Apache Pass, of sinister hi.story. For fear of the Apaches little hunting was done, but an occasional animal was slaughtered out of the driven herd. The train was well supplied with bacon, flour, dried fruits and Pioneers of Early Arizona 5 other provisions; and with a small stock of house- hold goods and farming tools. Progress was slow. Fifteen miles was a good day's journey, the distance travelled being governed by the watering places along the road. The Arizona of 1857 was a wilderness almost un- known to Americans except along overland lines of travel. There were a few squalid Mexican settle- ments, and the Missions of the Santa Cruz valley; beaver hunters from the north and east had crossed it; and following the Gadsden purchase the gov- ernment began the establishment of military posts within the newly acquired territory, at that time at- tached to Dona Ana County, New Mexico. Almost all business related in some way to the United States army. Contracts for wild hay were let by the gov- ernment to supply the cavalry, and whipsawed lum- ber was brought down from the mountains for the construction of military posts under whose protec- tion little farms began to produce home grown sup- plies. Freighting was perhaps the most important business of that day, military supplies, merchandise for trade, machinery for the mines, and commodi- ties of all kinds, were brought hundreds of miles from East and West, by means of slow moving ox teams. There were but few domestic cattle at this time, although there were considerable numbers of wild horses and cattle. These were sometimes hunted, and sometimes were captured by means of extended lines of horsemen converging upon cor- 6 The Penningtons rals arranged to receive them. Antelope, deer, bear, and wild turkeys were numerous, and the Apaches regarded the whole of this vast region as their hunting ground. In its general outlines, of course, the country was the same then as now, but in details it differed greatly. Everywhere the plains were grass covered to an extent unknown at the present time, the ranges being now as a rule over-grazed. The valley bot- toms were covered by a dense growth of perennial Sacaton grass, oftentimes as high as the head of a horseman and so thick and tall that cattle, horses and men were easily concealed by it. Indeed, in early days it was necessary to drive cattle out upon the mesas at the time of the rodeos, where they could be seen and handled. The uplands were well covered with a variety of nutritious grasses, such as the perennial black grama, and the many annuals that spring into growth during the summer rainy season. The abundant vegetation, both on high- lands and in valley bottoms, restrained the flood waters resulting from the torrential storms of the region, so that there was no erosion in valley bot- toms. Instead, the rainfall soaked into the soil and made grass. Sloughs and marshy places were common along the San Simon, the San Pedro, the Santa Cruz, and other streams, and even beaver were abundant in places where it would now be im- possible for them to li\'e. The abundant grass made range fires common, these often being set by the Indians to drive game. Pioneers of Early Arizona 7 In comj^arison with modern Arizona, shorn of its grass by cattle and with its bare valley bottoms torn open by erosion, the ])rimitive wilderness of sixty years ago was verdure clad and beautiful, and doubtless attractive to the adventurous Americans who entered, j^rcsumably under the protection of their government, just before the Civil War. At Fort Buchanan, the hardships of the journey began to tell upon our travelers. Some of the ani- mals ga\'e out and Larcena Pennington fell ill with mountain fever. The family, with their three wagons and their cattle, were thus forced to drop out of the train. While waiting for the stricken sister to recover the men undertook a contract for wild hay for the Fort, which, of course, was garri- soned by cavalry. Laboriously, with scythes, hand rakes, forks and wagons they completed their con- tract, but were then obliged to wait weeks for their pay. Meantime, the Apaches raided them and drove off their stock, leaving them in grim earnest in the heart of an unknown and dangerous country. Let us pause for a moment to become better ac- quainted with the members of this hardy family at the time when adverse fortune called upon them to face a life of hardship and adventure most remark- able even among the annals of the pioneers. Pennington, himself, was a South Carolinian, of Revolutionary stock, and English descent. He was an exceptional figure — tall, straight and strong, weighing about 190 pounds. His features were 8 The Penningtons aquiline and handsome, eyes blue, full bearded, in later years clean shaven. He was a man of great determination and courage in the midst of the dan- gers that surrounded him, although, perhaps from policy, he avoided as much as possible direct en- counters with the Indians that overran the country. He was a good farmer, hunted in time of need for his family, and for much of the time kept wagons and teams busy in the freighting business in what is now southern Arizona. He was affectionate to his family, and by those who knew him personally, is described as having been a sober and very quiet man. Jim, the oldest of the children, was a tall, raw- boned, red-faced young fellow, not so large as his father, quiet and hard-working. He was especially skillful with oxen. His friend Oteno speaks of seeing him unload logs from the Santa Rita moun- tains by sending the two leading spans to the back of the load where they pulled off the logs one by one while the wheel oxen held the wagon in place. In all this they were guided mainly by the voice of their driver. Jack, the second boy, seems to have taken part in many enterprises of the time, — freighting, handling cattle, washing gold on the Hassayampa. He was affectionate and loyal to his family and friends. On one occasion, at the Cooke's Canyon ambuscade in i86i, when one of his party was wounded and about to be left to the Apaches, though only a boy Pioneers of Early Arizona 9 of eighteen, he leveled his rifle upon his companions and compelled them to rescue the wounded man. Green was a tall, quiet boy who liked to be with his father. He seems to have been especially loved by his sisters. He also was affectionate and loyal, Mary Pennington. losing his life finally in defense of his father's body at the time of the ambuscade on the Sonoita. All of the men were especially kind and chivalrous to- ward the women of their household, a trait consis- tent with their southern origin. 10 The Penningtons Of the daughters, the older took charge of the motherless family. One of them, Ellen, taught the younger children to read, others helped the men with field work, sometimes they did sewing for the officers' wives at the Fort. There were eight of them in all, vigorous and capable, able to ride and handle firearms, cheerfully making the best of the hard life they were obliged to endure. Thus equi])ped in experience and character the Penningtons, with stout hearts, set about making a home and a living for themselves in the midst of an Indian infested wilderness. A ditch was taken out of the Sonoita below Buchanan, and a small field of corn, pumpkins, squashes, beans and vegetables was planted. The money for the hay contract came, more animals were purchased and the family moved o\'er to the Santa Cruz, where we hear of them in the old Gandara house at Calabasas in September, 1859; at the stone house near the Mexican line in i860; on the Sonoita a few miles below Buchanan in the same year; at the stone house again and at the Mowry mine in 1861 and 1862. They moved often, from restlessness, from fear of the Indians and because of the slender advantages to be gained here and there from a change. At first they escaped personal injury, although the Apaches were seen from time to time, and their fields were occasionally robbed of green corn and vegetables. Indeed, the Indians themselves stated subsequently, at a time of truce, that they spared Q O w X O O M 'A O H <^ o H O /'. "A w H 12 The Penningtons the Penningtons for a time because the}^ could usu- ally steal of them the provisions the}^ needed on their way to and from Mexico. Meanwhile, in December, 1858, Larcena Pen- nington married John Hempstead Page, in Tucson, which at that time was a little adobe town of a few hundred souls, mostly Mexicans. Mr. Page was then engaged, in partnership with Captain Rey- nolds, in whip-sawing j^ine lumber in Madera Can- yon in the Santa Ritas, and in hauling it to Tucson — a perilous but paying business at a time when the U. S. quartermaster paid 25 cents a foot for boards. And so it happened that, in March, i860, Mrs. Page, desiring to escape the chills and fcxxr that then pre- vailed in Tucson, ])ersuadcd her husband to take her with him for the next load of lumber. It was doubtless a jolly party — Page, his wife, the little Mexican girl, Mercedes, whom Mrs. Page was teach- ing to read, and Reynolds, that tra\'elled the old road under the big mesquites, up the Santa Cruz to the Canoa, then turned eastward and drew near to the mouth of the canyon behind their slow moving oxen. Self-reliant and careless, after the manner of that day, they gave little thought to danger or to the party of five Apaches that were c\-en then watching them from the hills flanking the mouth of the can- yon. They pitched their tent that night beside the running stream flowing from the canyon and in- stalled a few items of bedding and furniture they -a *. o o V' ' vff^' • ^ ■■•^-■ >^ <; i^ <- >^ u D pq [^ fe Q JmHM O 14 The Penningtons had brought along. This camp was not at the Big Rock where still stand the ruins of a stone house and corral, but was about two miles below. The night passed without incident and breakfast was disposed of early next morning. Reynolds took his gun and went after game, while Page, about ten o'clock rode up the canyon to see about his next load of lumber. Mrs. Page and little Mercedes were thus left alone, exposed to the Indians, who had been watch- ing them since the day before. Soon after her hus- band's departure, Mrs. Page was resting in her rocker in the tent, when her little dog began to bark. Then a scream from the child outside, who had been gathering bright colored oakballs, warned her of danger. The little girl was quickly caught by the approaching Indians and, immediately, Mrs. Page saw them entering the doorway. She sprang to the bed and seized a pistol that lay under the turned-up covers, but the weapon was wrested from her before she could shoot. She tried to run but was stopped. One of the Indians spoke a little Spanish, and by words and signs told her (what was not true) that they had just killed Mr. Page as he drank at a spring, and that the saddle they carried was his. Mrs. Page began to scream for help, but one of the Apaches put his lance to her breast and threatened to kill her if she did not stop. The In- dians then proceeded to loot the camp, cutting open sacks of flour, scattering the provisions and making Pioneers of Early Arizona 15 ready to go with whatever they could take away. The camp was quickly spoiled, and the Apaches, with their prisoners and plunder, began their fliglit. A little way from the ruined camp they stopped to rip open a feather bed they had been trying to carry. Until this time Mrs. Page had remained unterrified, feeling a certain contempt for her savage captors; but when she saw her precious feather bed thus cru- elly assailed, she seemed to realize fully her danger and screamed again, but her captors once more stopped her by threatening her with their lances; and the party started along a well beaten trail that led along the side of the mountain, almost north. The five Indians in the party were young with one exception — an older man who spoke Spanish. They were armed only with bows and arrows, and lances. The prisoners were not molested except when their captors, evidently in high glee at their success, pre- tended to ambush them from behind trees or play- fully pointed the captured pistol at them. One of the Apaches melted snow in his hands for them to drink. Mrs. Page was pushed or pulled up steep places in the trail and Mercedes was carried pick-a- back. Their hats were restored to them from the plunder and fair progress was made, the savages seeking safety in one of their camps on the San Pedro. One of the Apaches, an ugly black fellow, was pointed out to Mrs. Page as her future owner and this may have accounted for the mercy shown. The journey continued to the northeast and north 16 The Penningtons through hilly country. Mrs. Page began, secretly, to tear off bits of her dress and bend twigs along the trail to guide a following party. She told the little girl to do this also, but the Apaches stopped them and forbade them to speak to each other again. In this fashion they travelled all day, one of the party staying behind to warn them of pursuit. Mrs. Page talked a little in Spanish with her captors. The older man said that this country was once all theirs, but that now many of their people had been killed by the whites — "pong, pong, pong." Mrs. Page answered as best she could, keeping in good courage and hoping for rescue by the j^arty she knew must soon follow. Just before sunset the Apache travelling behind to warn the party of pursuit, ran up saying that the Americans were coming. The pace quickened, but Mrs. Page, exhausted with the day's travel, could not go faster. As they went up a narrow ridge with a steep slope on one side, they made her take off her spencer and heavy skirt, again telling her (she thought by way of warning) that the Ameri- cans had killed many of their people. They mo- tioned her to go on ; then as she turned and started she felt a lance in her back and sprang forward and fell down the steep side of the hill. The Apaches followed, thrusting at her with lances and striking her with rocks, until she lodged against a big pine tree and one of the Indians stunned her with a stone. The savages, thinking her dead, dragged -a V to O H Oh Q J o w X 18 The Penningtons Jier behind a tree where she might not be seen from the trail, and taking her shoes left her in a bank of snow. Reviving shortly after, she heard the Ameri- cans on the trail above, and her husband's voice, referring to the trail, saying, " Here it is, boys." She tried to move and speak, but was too weak to make them hear, and they passed on, being de- ceived by the fact that one of the Apaches had just put on her shoes. They followed this false trail beyond the Catalina Mountains, where it was lost, and the party went to Tucson to equip a second, and, finally, a third expedition to rescue the prisoners. When her husband's party had passed on, Mrs. Page again lost consciousness and lay at the pine tree, she thinks, about three days. Her wounds, fortu- nately, w^ere cooled by the snow and, finally, she again revived. To understand the heroic and almost unbelievable effort for life now made by this young woman of twenty-three, we must remember that she was in the hills just east of the present site of Helvetia; bruised with stones and cut with sixteen lance wounds in her back and arms, without shoes, water or food, almost without clothes, and without a beaten pathway, for she feared to follow back along the Indian trail. There is no doubt of the locality for she clearly re- membered that, after travelling northeast and north all day, just before she was attacked, she saw down in the plain toward the setting sun, a small sharp- pointed hill. There is but one such landmark on Pioneers of Early Arizona 19 the route and distance travelled, and that is Huer- fano Hill, about three miles west of Helvetia. She must, therefore, haxe fallen at a ])()int twelve or fifteen miles from the camp left tliat morning and she remembered that Page afterwards told her it was fifteen miles. Gathering her strength for the effort, she at- tended to her wounds as best she could, ate a little snow to slake her thirst, then crawled down the slope to level ground and slept. Awaking at sun- rise she knew the directions back to camp, since it was sunset when she was struck down. Being weak from loss of blood, and without shoes, she was soon unable to stand; but day by day she crept on, partly supporting herself on her hands and subsisting on seeds, herbage and wild onions, with snow water to drink. Night by night (unable to lie on her back because of her wounds) she crouched upon her knees and arms on the ground and dreamed of food; but when in her sleep she reached out for the pot of beans before her, she awoke to find her hands clutching only gravel. Once she came to a bear's nest and longed to lie in the mass of soft grass and leaves, but dared not and crept away. And so her terrible journey continued for about ten days. Her feet became filled with small stones; her bare shoulders were blistered with the hot sun ; her head was a mass of clotted blood ; and yet she kept on — desperately, indomitably on, to the southward. Then at last she came to a point on a high ridge 20 The Penningtons overlooking the road that led into Madera Canyon and saw below her some men with an ox team near the camp from which she had been taken. She could hear their voices plainly, and the sound of blows struck on their wagon tires. She tied her petticoat to a stick and waved it and screamed, but could not make them hear, and they passed on. Again she resumed her fearful journey and in two days more reached the teamster's camp, where she found fire still smouldering in a log by the road- side. Then she carried a stick on fire at one end to her husband's ruined camp nearby, where she scraped up some flour and some coffee yet remain- ing on the ground. Tearing a square piece from her clothing and putting the flour on it, she went down to the stream nearby and mixed a little pat of dough and baked it at her fire. After she had eaten the bread and some of the coffee, and had bathed her wounds, she was refreshed and slept the night there. Next morning she started up the road to the sawyers' camp, probably the one at the Big Rock. As she drew near she was seen, but not at first recognized. With clotted hair and gaping wounds, nearly naked, emaciated and sunburned, she was at first mistaken for an unfortunate outcast squaw and the men ran for their guns. She called to them that she was Mrs. Page and was finally rec- ognized; but one. Smith, declared that she was a spirit, unable to believe that she could return alive after more than two weeks of such hardship. One Pioneers of Early Arizona 21 of the men then carried lier into the cam};, where she was fed and washed and clothed with rough but sympathizing care, and a courier sent to Tucson for a doctor. llie messenger reached Tucson just as Mr. Page was about to start on a third attempt to find liis wife. He had followed the trail from the looted camp through the Rincons to a ]:)oint bcj-ond tiie Cata- linas. Then he returned and went out again; and again returned for still another party. These ex- jjcditions must ha\e taken a number of days and roughly confirm the statement that it was sixteen days from the time Mrs. Page was captured until her return. After two days she was taken to Tuc- son, where she fully recovered. The little girl, Mercedes, captured with her, was exchanged later by Captain Ewell for certain of his Apache pris- oners. She grew to womanhood and became the wife of Charles A. Shibell, well known as a j)ioneer, and for many years recorder of Pima County. But the desperate and almost incredible adven- ture of Mrs. Page was only a warning to the Pen- ningtons of disasters to come — little heeded, how- ever, in those days when danger was the atmosphere to which men and women were too well accustomed. For ten years, until the remnants of the broken family went back to Texas, the traditions of the Sonoita and the Santa Cruz are full of their per- sonalities and adventures. Only a year later, in March or April, 1861, Mr. Page was ambushed and 22 The Penningtons killed by Apaches north of Tucson while conducting a load of goods to old Camp Grant. He was buried where he fell, at the top of the hill beyond Sama- niego's ranch, on the old road; and all that Mrs. Page ever saw of him was his handkerchief, his purse and a lock of his hair. Her daughter, Mary, was born in September of that year, and shortly afterward she rejoined her father's family at the Stone House on the Santa Cruz. This location was a most dangerous one, however, although the Pen- ningtons were strangely spared by the Apaches themselves while they lived here. The Indians were at their worst during the early sixties, the country being virtually unprotected by the Federal government at a time when the energies of that government were engrossed by the Civil War. On one occasion, about this time, Mrs. Page and her baby girl fled with others to the Mowry Mine, which was fortified and offered protection from the Apaches. But smallpox broke out among the refu- gees, Mrs. Page and her baby being among those attacked. Mowry nursed his smallpox patients as best he knew how, but nearly starved them to death on a scanty diet of flour and water, believing that "no grease" should be fed to those ill of this dis- ease. Most of the patients, however, recovered from both the disease and the treatment. Not long after, in June, 1862, Mowry was arrested by Fed- eral authorities, his mine was confiscated, and he was sent to Fort Yuma as a Rebel sympathizer. Pioneers of Early Arizona 23 We now hear of the Penningtons, in 1862 and 1863, at the old Gandara liouse at Calabasas. Next, they are in Tucson in 1863 ; in Tubac in 1864; at the Sopori Ranch from 1866 to 1868; at Tubac again in 1868; and. at Fort Crittenden in 1869. This restless, almost nomadic, life was characteristic of the time and reminds us of the story of Kirkland, another pioneer of that day, of whom it was said that after he had lived a short time in one place his chickens would come up and suggest another move by turning over on their backs to have their legs tied ! But before going further with the personal nar- rative in which we are concerned, let us jjause to take note of the conditions that confronted the pio- neers from i860 to 1870. Of government there was little, except what was enforced by each man for himself. Until Arizona became a separate territory in 1863, the Gadsden Purchase was attached to Bona Ana County, New Mexico, with the only available court of justice at Mesilla. Sometimes criminals were turned over to the army officers at the posts, but more frequently they were summarily dealt witJi. Gradually, under the new Territorial govern- ment, courts were established in the larger towns; but the annals of the time are commonplace with bloodshed and violence, and murderous crimes which sometimes met with swift reprisal, but which too often remained unpunished. 24 The Penningtons Over all this thinly settled region hung the Apache scourge. During this whole decade these Indians })lundered and murdered almost at will. For a time, in 1 86 1 and 1862, even the United States troops were withdrawn and the Apaches, be- lieving this to be from fear of themselves, became bolder and more murderous than before. Truces with the goxernment, in which good behavior was promised in return for rations, were always broken; and the unsettled policy toward the Indians accom- plished nothing toward their reformation or control. The settlers in fact had a \'ery poor opinion of the military protection which was afforded them at this time and for the most i)art took the matter into their own hands. With what determination they did this is attested by the annals of such men as Pete Kitchen and William Rhoades, King Woolsey, Bill Oury, and many t)thers like them, who held this country at a time when it was practically abandoned by its own government. The commerce of southern Arizona at this time related mainly to mining enterprises and to the troops. Mining macliinery, supplies for military posts and manufactured articles for trade all had to be expensively freighted from tlie nearest landing places at Guaymas and A\ima, or overland by way of Texas. Government contracts for wild hay for the posts, and for lumber, were an important source of revenue to ach-enturous takers. High prices offered for corn and other farm products stimu- Pioneers of Early Arizona 25 lated agricultural industry near the military posts; and the first herds of American cattle were brought in from Texas to make rations for the presumably peaceful Apaches. The main route of tra\el at that time was the California overland road which traversed southern Arizona from east to west and wliich connected with military posts, mining camps, and irrigated valleys throughout the region. Oxen were used at first for freighting purposes. They were strong and gentle, did not stray readily, and rec]uired no harness, which was very expensive in those days. They made the best draught animals as long as there was abundant grass for them along the road. In time, however, as the grass was eaten out, and feed had to be carried, niules and horses, which eat less, re- placed the oxen. Freight rates were 7 to 8 cents a pound from Yuma to Tucson; and 9 to 10 cents a pound from Yuma to Calabasas. From Tucson to Calabasas the rate was i cent, and from Tubac to Tucson ^ cent a jxnnul. The U. S. quartermas- ters paid 2^2 to T^y> cents a jjound for corn; and 25 cents a foot for rough pine boards from the Santa Rita mountains. Under such conditions and with such incentives, the Penningtons, like others of their time, engaged in whate\'er afforded the best returns for the time being, moving frequentl}^ as convenience or interest required. From the records of the time and from the testimony of a few yet living who knew them, 26 The Penningtons we gather a scant account of their varied and active life. In December, 1859, Jim Pennington located a homestead on the Santa Cruz and in 1865 testifies, " I have lived upon the same at all times only such as I was compelled to leave on account of Indians and the unsettled condition of the country." In August, 1 86 1, Jack Pennington appears at Cooke's Canyon in New Mexico in the ambush of a wagon train enroute for the Rio Grande. In the course of the fracas one of the party was wounded and about to be left behind, when Jack, who was but a boy, with his le\'elled rifle compelled his companions to place the wounded man in a wagon, thus finally saving him. In 1864 we again hear of him wash- ing gold on the Hassayampa; and finally, in 1870, he came back from Texas to aid the broken family to return there. The main occupation of the family was freight- ing, and the Penningtons, with their heavy wagons and teams of twelve to fourteen oxen, were much of the time on the road. Thus we hear of them — Jim in a fight with a small war party that ambushed him and captured his oxen, on his way to the Patagonia mine; and on other occasions at Oatman Flat on the Yuma road. Much of the time the men were cut- ting lumber in Madera Canyon in the Santa Ritas and hauling it to Tubac where there was a sawmill, to the Cerro Colorado and other mines for timbers, and to Tucson. At Tucson for a time they operated a saw pit in the street originally called the Calle del D :i f3 B » Or TJwOiMK I -*— t — j 1 1 \l 1 4 * t f- Portion of Official Map of the City of Tucson, S. W. Foreman, Surveyor. Approved and Adopted June 26, 1872. Sidney R. DeLong, Mayor. William J. Osborn, Recorder. Traced from Original Map Sept. i, 1915, by A. L. Enger. Pioneers of Early Arizona 29 Arroyo. As the name signifies, this street was, at least partly, in an arroyo or dry water course that lay immediately to the south of the old walled town. This depression, or arroyo, was conveniently util- ized as a saw pit by throwing across it timbers on which to sujjport the \nne logs, which were then whip-sawed into boards by men standing, one in the arroyo and the other on the log above. In course of time, when the streets of the old Mexican town were renamed, the Callc del Arroyo was called Pennington Street after the men whose rude place of business it was; and so it remains to-day. It was while hauling lumber to Tucson, in August, 1868 that Jim Pennington finally met his fate. Camping by the road north of San Xavier, his oxen were stolen by Apaches during the night. Next morn- ing he and his teamster pursued the Indians, but were ambushed in the hills west of Tucson and Jim was killed. He was buried first at Tucson, after- ward at the Sopori Ranch, where a wooden head- board still marks his grave. Of the women — those who waited anxiously at home for the news of disaster that they continually expected — we also catch occasional glimpses. C. B. Genung relates that in April, 1864, he found the Pennington women, with two boys and little Mary Page, living in Tubac. Except for them the place seemed to be abandoned at that time, and the danger from Indians was great. Every morning the two boys, with guns as long as them- 30 The Penningtons selves, carefully reconnoitered each side of the path to the spring froni which the women then carried the water supply for the day. The Sopori Ranch, Jaxe Pennington (Mrs. Wm. Crumpton), about 1885. about ten miles from Tubac, was also their abiding place from 1866 to 1868. This was an extremely dangerous location, being in the path of Apache war parties passing to and from Mexico. The ranch house was fortified, with stone walls sur- Pioneers of Early Arizona 31 rounding it and with the walls pierced by port holes for guns. They were ne\'er attacked here although the dove and turkey calls used by the Indians as signals were sometimes heard. One morning the youngest sister, Josephine, picketed her favorite pony a short distance below the Sopori Ranch house, but she had not reached the door before an Apache ran out from the bushes, jumped on the horse and made off with him. Notwithstanding the danger, these brave women made the most of a hard situation. They cultivated a small field in the adjacent creek bottom, irrigating it from a ditch that flowed close under the little rocky hill on which their fortress home was perched. Under the walnut trees that fringed the ditch they did their washing, and many an hour was passed in sewing, which was all done by hand. A small separate building was set aside as a schoolroom, and here the older sister, Ellen, who had gone to school in Texas, taught the younger children with the help of the Bible and the battered school books that had been brought through the Pecos years before. For amusement they had to depend upon themselves. They had little inter- course with Americans except for occasional passers by, from whom we have several accounts of them at this time. Oftentimes, at the Sopori, at the close of day, when the men were due to return from a freighting trip, the women would watch and wait with dread Pioneers of Early Arizona 33 and apprehension, fearing disaster, until the crack of the long whip and a well known voice encour- aging the oxen, would finally reassure them. There was much fever in this region also, in early days, due to the grass grown and swampy condition 10 n — III 1 U. Bvt Maj.CHVaili quarters 2 Adjutants quarters 3. Cody's kitchen 4 Commissary deportment 5. Ouartermosters stores. 6. Guord house. 7 CaC quortcrs, I- USCovalry 8. CoK quorters, \^ US. Ca/alry 9. Cook house, CoC 10 Cook house. Co K Wimshed) 1 1 . Suds row 12. Lt Garrett^ quarters 13. Officers quorters 14. Sutler's store (Stevens iYo-k«) I 5. Old suds row 16 Pennington home 17. &\xt^aiion corroll 18 Quchonon conifnissory Old Fort Crittenden. of the river bottoms, with consequent mosquitoes and malaria. A sister, Ann, died here in 1867 and was buried in the Sopori Cemetery. At about this time, also, Ellen, the older sister, Pioneers of Early Arizona 35 married one Barnett, who was a member of the first Territorial Legislature. Diminished in numbers, the Penningtons drifted back to Tubac in 1868 and to Fort Crittenden in 1869, probably hoping for greater security there. But in June, 1869, the Apaches again took heavy toll of this devoted family, this time killing the father and Green, now grown to manhood. These two were at work in their field on the Sonoita about fourteen miles below Fort Crittenden. The father was plowing, with his rifle slung to his plow- handles, while Green was repairing an irrigating ditch some distance away. Just after the older man had turned back on his land, the savages in ambush shot him down from behind. The boy might have escaped, but not knowing that his father was dead, remained to fight off the Apaches. He was mortally hurt, but finally reached the ranch house where he remained until rescued by cavalry from the fort, to which the alarm had been carried meantime. Green, and his father's body, were brought to the Fort, where eight days later the young man died. These two, father and son, were buried in the cemetery on top of a little hill just above the railroad cut nearest the site of old Fort Buchanan. Mr. Sidney R. DeLong, then quarter- master of the Fort, read the burial service over them. With the loss of their father and two brothers, the broken family now ga\e up the unequal contest with Q O < H >< < Z O in w H < Q >< OS z o H 2 o u X Pioneers of Early Arizona 37 adverse fortune. The remaining sisters, with a young brother and little Mary Page, now put their slender belongings together and came to Tucson. Here they made a last effort to escape from this land of tragedies and outfitted for California. At the Point of Mountain, twenty miles on their road, the widowed sister, Ellen, became ill of pneumonia and the party returned to Tucson, where Ellen died. A little later, brother Jack, who had gone back to Texas some time before, came for them, and they returned with him shortly after. Only one of the original party found the way in later years to Cali- fornia, the land of promise for which they had set their faces years before. Mrs. Page remained in Tucson, becoming the wife of William F. Scott in 1870, and living un- eventfully at the old home on South Main Street until her death, March 31, 191 3, at the age of 76 years. This plain chronicle of pioneer life in old Arizona contains little of romance to commend it even to a sympathetic reader. True, the story is ennobled by the heroism and unselfishness which appears in it from time to time, — Jack, refusing to leave a wounded companion to the savages ; Green, sacri- ficing his life to help his father; the older sisters, taking charge of the motherless family; the men, constantly in danger to secure the necessities of life for those dependent upon them. But in the main, to those who lived it, the life must have seemed bar- 293404 38 The Penningtons ren and disappointing at best, and purely tragic at the last when death put an end to the contest for so many of them. There were compensations here and there ; and it is interesting to learn from the pioneers themselves the motives that led many of them to accept and even prefer the hardships and dangers of the fron- tier. Pennington himself seems to have wanted elbow room, and freedom from the constraints of too close association with neighbors. Another ex- presses it by saying that many of the pioneers hated civilization. Some of them came to Arizona from the South after the Civil War in order to get as far as possible from the dominion of the government that had defeated them. One old miner, referring to his youth in Arizona in the sixties, said: "Oh, we were just young fellows out for a time." Tom Gardner said, in the same strain, " Well, you see, there was lively minin' then, lively hoss racin' and lively fightin ' — everything was lively." Genung, tiring of the constraints of San Francisco in the days of the Vigilantes, said that it was excitement and adventure and freedom that attracted him to Arizona. Adventurousness, therefore, love of free- dom and hatred of restraint, were qualities that characterized many of the men. As to the women, there were but few American women in the country in those days, and these, as a rule, not from choice, it is safe to say. Usually they chanced here through militarv connections or some adverse fortune that Pioneers of Early Arizona 39 diverted them from the California road. Without the society of their kind, often without the comforts of life, without the relief afforded by active adven- ture, and often in danger, they had no choice but to endure. As a class the pioneers were an essential factor in early development. They constituted an indepen- dent citizen soldiery that cooperated with the troops while the country was being reclaimed from the In- dians. They brought in military supplies; fur- nished hay and lumber to the posts ; and in many cases were more effective than the soldiers them- selves in expeditions against the Apaches. Many of the older mines were located and worked by them; and the possibilities of agriculture were also grad- ually shown. All this pa\'ed the way for civilized government, for immigration, and, finally, for the development of mining and agricultural industries. Too often the character of the pioneer unfitted him for the quieter conditions which he made possible. Too often, again, he was so broken by a life of hardship that he derived little benefit from the re- sults of his own labor. Let us, then, looking back over their eventful lives, give them due homage for what they have accomplished for us in meeting the dangers and in overcoming the difficulties of our last Frontier. m-t* lay- ; » 1 ' . ^^. ^ A 13 „ c '^ !- h— o C/2 Pioneers of Early Arizona 41 REFERENCES Letters of C. B. Genung, May 31, 1913, and June 9, 1913. Court of Claims of the L'nited States : Indian Depredations No. 31 12, pp. 4-59. Court of Claims of the United States : Indian Depredations No. 3112, pp. 60-182. Court of Claims of the United States : Indian Depredations No. 31 12, pp. 248-332. Court of Claims of the United States : Indian Depredations No. 7363, manuscript copy. Across America and Asia, p. 13. Pumpelly. The Apache Country, pp. 152-155. J. Ross Browne. New Tracks in North America, Vol. II, pp. 100-102 (December 3, 1867). Bell. Diary of Samuel Hughes. County Records of Pima County, Arizona : Land Claims No. i, p. 51. Land Claims No. i, p. 59. Letter of L. E. Barnett, October I, 1869. Mrs. Scott's account of her capture by the Apaches ; taken by her daughter (Mrs. R. H. Forbes). Copy of a portion of Sam Hughes' diary, mentioning the Pen- ningtons in 1859. Narrative of Jane Pennington (Mrs. Crumpton), Santa Cruz, Cal., May 18, 1916. Narrative of John H. Cady, December 8, 1914. Pennington notebook, by R. H. Forbes, containing various nar- ratives and notes relating to the Pennington family. Pacific Wagon Roads. House of Representatives ; 35tb Congress, 2d Session. Ex. Doc. No. 108. Los Angeles Star (Cameragraph), containing Arizona News in 1861. (Original in Bancroft Library, Berkeley, Cal.) Manuscript map showing overland wagon notes of travel through New Me.xico and Arizona. C. B. Genung's map and letter, showing main line of travel about i860. 42 The Penningtons Map (Cameragraph, 2 parts) of the Military Department of New Mexico, 1864. Map (Cameragraph) of the Territories of New Mexico and Ari- zona ; by the Office of the Chief Engineers, U. S. A., 1879. Map of Arizona Territory (Cameragraph) by authority of Gen. O. B. Willcox, 1879. Map (Cameragraph) of Southwestern New Mexico, by the Office of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., 1883. Official Map (Cameragraph) of the Territory of Arizona, com- piled by Richard Gird, 1865. Johnson's Map (photograph) of the United States, in 1858, show- ing the Gadsden Purchase as Arrizonia. Skeleton Map (blueprint) of Southern California, Engineer Office, Military Division of the Pacific, 1874. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9-Series 4939 Form L-9 20m-l, '42(8519) UWIVJERSiTY OJ^' CALlFORNli AT AA 000 526 020 3