By Kristy McCaffrey
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| Bill Kirkland |
Born in Virginia, Bill Kirkland came west in 1850 at the age
of eighteen to the gold fields of California. After five years of successful
prospecting, he decided to visit home via a steamer to Panama, traveling
overland, then taking another ship to the eastern United States. But when the
fare became too high, he decided on a southern route instead through Arizona
and New Mexico.
He arrived in Tucson on January 17, 1856, just as the
Mexican troops were preparing to depart. The land now belonged to the United
States via the Gadsden Purchase. (The Gadsden Purchase was ratified in 1854,
but the U.S. flag wasn’t displayed in Tucson until March 10, 1856.)
With little military protection, men began arriving to
expand mining operations in the mineral-laden mountains near the Santa Cruz River.
The area became lawless, but finally U.S. troops were dispatched. Kirkland
decided to remain to provide timber and dry goods to the building boom that was
just beginning in Tucson, as well as to the mines around Tubac and to the
military.
During the 1850’s, Tucson became the center for trade in the
southern Arizona Territory. By 1860, there were 650 residents. Tucson sat along
the banks of the Santa Cruz and was described as a sleep, one-story adobe town
with narrow, dusty streets. People and animals intermingled freely.
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| Cochise |
In 1857, Kirkland started a ranch near Tubac. He grew barley
for a nearby army post. Three times he purchased cattle in Sonora, only to have
them stolen by Apache. On the fourth try, he finally managed to obtain, and
keep, 200 head. His was the first American ranching enterprise in what would
one day become Arizona. He lived under the constant threat of an Apache attack.
One day, Kirkland met Cochise, who wanted to feed his braves. Kirkland quickly
prepared a meal for them, after which they left.
In 1859, Kirkland married Missouri Ann Bacon, whom he met
when her family stopped in Tucson on their way to California. When they settled
in Tucson by opening a restaurant, Kirkland frequented it. Pretty girls
garnered much interest, since there were so few of them. But Missouri chose
Kirkland, a tall man with rugged good looks and a reputation as a fearless
frontiersman. When their daughter, Elizabeth, was born, she was the first
Anglo-American child born in the Arizona Territory.
Kirkland built the first graded road in the area, which led
to his lumber camp in Madera Canyon. He supplied the mines, military and the
village of Tucson until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. At that time,
military posts in Arizona Territory were abandoned. The Apache, under the
direction of Cochise, saw this as an opportunity to drive the Anglos out. Kirkland
served as a captain of volunteers in Tucson, but finally decided to take his
family to California until troops returned to Arizona. He had lost much of his
ranching and lumber business due to the Apache.
When Kirkland returned to Arizona, he successfully
prospected gold north of Wickenburg, near present-day Phoenix. He then moved
his family to an area now known as Kirkland Valley. The first year, he raised
barley. He also built four arrastras to crush ore and eventually had thirty men
working for him. But, again, he was besieged by Apache. They stole his barley
at night and rustled his livestock during the day. So, Kirkland packed up and
went back to southern Arizona. He established a ranch on Sonoita creek, but
Apache swiftly stole a dozen mules and a horse.
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| Following the establishment of Fort McDowell in the Salt River Valley, enterprising men like Bill Kirkland arrived. |
Throughout his life, Kirkland preferred to move elsewhere
when Apache problems occurred. In 1871, he moved his family to the Salt River
Valley to a small community people were beginning to call Phoenix. A few
entrepreneurs had cleaned out old Hohokam canals and were irrigating crops,
which they sold to Fort McDowell and the mining camps up north in the Bradshaw
Mountains. Missouri Ann was one of the first women to take up residence in
Phoenix. Their home was a small adobe house. That year, Kirkland’s third child
was born. Ella was the first Anglo child born in Phoenix.
In late 1871, Kirkland moved his family again, to nearby
Tempe. He was elected a justice of the peace and for the remainder of his life
he was known as Judge Kirkland. But Kirkland was restless. He moved his family
to Silver City, New Mexico and then to Texas before returning to Arizona in
1876. He took the job of deputy sheriff in a wild cowtown called Willcox. But
the Apache weren’t done with the area. When Geronimo and his band went on the
warpath in the 1880’s, Kirkland once again moved his family to the new gold
mining town of Congress.
Bill Kirkland was one of the first Anglo-Americans to arrive
in the Arizona Territory. While he wasn’t a violent man by nature, he
nevertheless never backed down when forced to fight. Whenever he could, he
avoided confrontation with the Apache. Oddly enough, the Apache came to respect
him.
Bill Kirkland passed away in 1910.
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Kristy McCaffrey writes historical western romances set in the American Southwest. Her latest book, The Blackbird, features the southern Arizona Territory. Learn more at her website.
