Arizona's First Army Volunteers (1866)

Camp Lincoln C. 1868

 In 1866, Gov. Goodwin organized two companies of “native volunteers”, the first volunteers of Arizona, to be stationed at Camp Lincoln. Historian Donald W Lockhart wrote about them in 1936: They were “unique and almost comical in appearance. They were composed of Mexicans, renegade Tonto and Mohave Indians, Frenchmen, [and others], all poorly clad and practically all barefooted. Many [of the] Indians were in native dress, but all seemed disciplined and obedient to their superior officers. When these volunteers were on duty, the brutal Apaches knew they had met their match.”

The Forgotten Pioneer & His Lost Gold

Nathaniel S “Boston” Graves died January 12, 1911, at the age of 88. He was “one of the earliest arrivals in this section of the Territory and also one of the most popularly known miners,” the Weekly Journal Miner explained. “He was more familiarly known as Boston.” He took ill with the flu (or grippe as it was called back then) late in 1910, having spent that year searching for “a ‘pothole’ that contained a vast amount of free gold.”

The Wickenburg Massacre: Nov. 5, 1871

“The stage for California left Prescott on the morning of Saturday, November 4, 1871, carrying the US Mail,” the Weekly Arizona Miner began. Aboard were a driver and six passengers. Three of the passengers were from Prescott: Frederick Sholom, William Kruger, and a “soiled dove” named Mollie Shepherd. The other three passengers were part of the Wheeler Expedition, a US Geological Survey mission to map the West that started the same year. Among these three was a popular, well-known 22-year-old writer named Frederick W. Loring- a native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard. The driver, John Lentz, was hired recently and was about to embark on his first return trip.

The first leg of the trip to Wickenburg “was almost a pleasure trip,” the same paper described. Loring told several people that he planned to write what he observed on his trip—that sentiment back East, believing the Indian Wars were nearly over, was fallacious, and he planned to redress the mistaken view.

But the following day would quickly become nationally infamous.

Arizona's 1st Telegraph Pole Was Erected at Ft. Whipple

Officer's Quarters Ft. Whipple (1871)

As 1873 dawned, the Weekly Arizona Miner lamented that Arizona was “about the only great geographical division of the Union that is not now connected with the Capital of said Union…by telegraph.” Indeed, Lt.-Gen. George R. Crook, the man in charge of fighting in the Indian Conflicts, requested that the War Department build a telegraph line from California into the Arizona Territory in 1871. However, by 1873, Crook had already made peace with the Apaches, and the “Indian Wars,” as they were called, were winding down. Yet the wiring of Arizona to the rest of civilization would still be of great benefit in case of conflict from Mexico, and Arizona “would no longer be isolated,” the Miner observed.

Constant Indian Raids, Spring 1870

1870 dawned with the usual optimism of a new year in Prescott, but underneath lay a sense of anxiety. The first edition of the 1870 Weekly Arizona Miner wrote: “Our inveterate foes—the Indians— have been on their good behavior for a number of weeks past, and have not recommenced hostilities, hereabouts. But judging from the fact that they have commenced swarming around many settlements, we fear that, ere long, they will commence their business of killing and plundering, and we advise our people to be on the lookout for them.”

The newspaper would have done well to tell its readers not to travel alone and double their herders. For it was the Indians' strategy to begin a campaign of ambushing lone travelers and lightly guarded stock.

My Life as an Indian Scout (Albert Sieber)

Pleasure to meet you. 

My name is Albert Sieber, and I was considered one of the best Indian scouts in the Arizona Territory, if not the Southwest. I was born in Germany on February 19, 1844, and came to America as a young boy, the 13th of 14 children. 

Early in 1862, I enlisted in Company B, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. I saw some terrible sights during the Peninsula Campaign in the Army of the Potomac as a Corporal and a sharpshooter. I thought I was a goner at Gettysburg when a piece of a shell hit me in the head. I sat lying on the battlefield until long after the fighting before they found me. 

The Indian Uprising of 1872

The ruins of Camp Date Creek

From February through June 1872, Native Americans launched raiding attacks around and surprisingly close to Prescott. The newspapers were filled with accounts of Indian depredations during this time, and the citizenry was both frightened and filled with consternation.

Orders came from Washington to change the practice of largely shooting Indians on sight to one of feeding and educating them instead. Initially, however,  the Indians, many of whom were starving, became emboldened and started to attack.

Castle Creek Hot Springs in the 19th Century

The first Anglo to dwell at the Castle Creek Hot Springs was a miner by the name of George Monroe, who discovered it in the 1870s. “At that time, he was engaged as a government scout, employed in the numerous campaigns against the Apaches,” the paper recalled. “One evening, just as the sun was sinking, Monroe was traveling down the banks of Castle Creek. As night [fell], he began a search for a place to sleep, [avoiding] the Indians. His search brought him to the mouth of a canyon, through which a small stream wound its way to Castle Creek. Following it a few yards, he came upon the bodies of 12 Maricopas who had, from all indications, been slain (recently) by Apaches.”

Rough Rider Cofounder Gov. Alexander Brodie

^{Because he gave his life during the Spanish-American War, it is Buckey O’Neill who is the most widely remembered Prescott Rough Rider. However, when the regiment departed the Prescott depot to go to war amid the echoes of celebratory dynamite blasts, the Arizona Republic observed: “Col. Brodie is the most popular man in the command.”}

1863: The Indian Raid on Peeples Valley

Abraham Harlow Peeples was one of the true early settlers of Central Arizona. He first arrived at Ft. Yuma in 1863 to prospect in the virgin wilderness of what would become Yavapai County. 

Peeples not only made mining claims, but he also quickly made a homesteading claim in a valley, 35 miles southwest of Prescott, which now bears his name. However, that winter, the Peeples’ ranch would suffer the crippling theft of 29 horses and mules.

Indian Wars Dispirited Early Thanksgiving Celebrations

The first Thanksgiving Day, November 9th, 1866, was a solemn one in Prescott. Some were thankful that the Union had been preserved, while others that the killing and destruction had finally ceased.

It was “the first time a day of Thanksgiving [had] been set apart in this territory,” the newspaper reported, and was “duly respected” with a community remembrance. However, the annual festivity would soon slip into neglect in Prescott and elsewhere in Arizona.

The Mysterious, Phantom Fort Misery Near Oro

Many are familiar with the first building in Prescott, and the oldest surviving log cabin in Arizona, “Fort Misery.” 

Then there was a second Fort Misery near Oro—or maybe there wasn’t. The mystery and controversy about the military presence near the banks of Humbug Creek during the Indian conflicts has flared up in recent years.

Kirkland's Early History

William H Kirkland

Bill Kirkland had a restless spirit, never wanting to stay too long in one place. At the age of 18 he left Missouri to make the long trek to California in 1850. He stayed there only five years before he relocated again, this time to Arizona.

There, the pioneer would be credited with many firsts. However, he is best known for a valley, creek, and town in central Arizona that would end up bearing his name.

Ft. Whipple 1869: Futile Campaigns & Public Diversions

In 1869, military campaigns against the Indians were hapless in Yavapai County. The Native Americans had not only learned that it was best to avoid the Army, but they also became quite adept at doing just that.

As morale dropped for both soldiers and civilians, local military leadership tried to reach out to the local community through theater and dances.

Fort Whipple's Faithful Dog "Abe"

Shortly after moving closer to Prescott, Fort Whipple had a camp dog owned by Indian Scout Willard Rice. His name was Abe.

One day, this faithful, large greyhound used his keen senses to protect his "pack," and he would be happily credited with preventing an Indian raid.

A Union Spy in the Joseph Walker Camp

Joseph Rutherford Walker, circa 1860

It is well understood that Fort Whipple was established to protect Anglos around the Prescott area. However, there is evidence that initially the federal government was not so much interested in protecting the miners as it was in protecting the minerals.

The First Prescottonians Killed in the Indian Conflicts

As Prescott began to develop into a small, isolated bastion of Anglo civilization, conflicts with Native Americans were immediate and regular.

Although trappers and miners were killed in the area prior, here are the accounts of the first Fort Whipple soldier and the first citizen of Prescott to be killed in the Indian Conflicts.

Indian War Military Posts of Yavapai County: A Primer

Fort Whipple

One cannot fully understand the Indian Conflicts in Yavapai County without a general understanding of the military posts of the time.

Here then is a primer of the early military posts including locations, dates, the the reason behind their names. This is first presented in alphabetical order, followed by a chronological list.

The Indian Raid That Gave Fort Rock Its Name

Fort Rock stage stop.

It was Saturday, November 19, 1866 when a force of 50-100 brave Hualapai warriors descended upon a stage stop near Mt. Hope on the road between Prescott and Hardyville (now Bullhead City). The epic battle would be remembered for generations and the name of the locale would change forever.

The Battle of the "Pinole Treaty"

PINOLE: A food made of maize, cacao beans, and spices that originated with the Aztecs.

It was January 4th, 1864. A.H. Peeples had just given his friend, William Kirkland, a watchdog with a new litter of puppies.

It was a decision that Peeples would regret the following night.