Life History

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Col. William Christy

BY HIS SON

Lloyd B. Christy

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Col. William Christy

BY HIS SON

Lloyd B. Christy

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The Life History of Col. William Christy

Col. William Christy, Soldier, Banker, Arizona Pioneer and State Builder, was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, on February 14, 1841. He was his parent 's oldest son and his mother called him her Valentine. His father was George Christy, son of an emi- grant of Scotch Presbyterian stock, an Orangeman from the north of Ireland. His mother was Jane Marshall, whose ancestors came to America during the Colonial days and some of whom fought for American Independence in the Bevolutionary War. Until lie was ten years old, he lived in Warren, Ohio, attending school in the winter, when he became old enough to go, and in the summer spending the time on his Grandfather Marshall's farm out from Warren, Ohio, where he helped in caring for the live- stock on the farm. My father was a religious man during his manhood, but he said he almost became a hater of religion in his early boyhood as his Grandfather Marshall, who was a very jolly and companion- able man during the work days of the week, became very severe and austere on Sunday. Sunday began at sundown on Saturday and from that time until sundown on Sunday, no one in his fam- ily was permitted to smile or play, and as my father was a very restless boy he got to dislike Sunday. His grandfather belonged to the United Presbyterian Church and in those days, Sundays were filled with three long sermons by a dry preacher and a cold «•>. lunch between sessions and hard benches for small boys to sit on, whose feet could not touch the floor. Is there any wonder he came to hate Sunday at his Grandfather Marshall's? When my father was twelve years old, his father decided

1 2 that there was a better chance to improve himself and family, financially, in Iowa, which was then the Western Frontier of the nation and where public lands could be had for homesteading, so he loaded his family in a prairie schooner and left Ohio for the new home. It took the family three months to get to and find the place in Southern Iowa, which was to become the future home of the Christy family. His father filed upon a tract of land in Clarke County, Iowa, and that piece of land has remained in the family until this day. Around that homestead has grown up the town of Osceola, which is hardly changed in appearance or in- creased in population for a half century. From the new home my father went to a country school and by the time he was sixteen or seventeen he had acquired all the knowledge the local school masters could impart and when eigh- teen years of age he himself, was elected to preside over a county school. He used to tell of the spelling matches his school held with neighboring schools, as he himself had become a noted speller, he with his pupils usually won every spelling match in which they contested. It was when he was 19 years old that the Civil War broke out. He immediately resigned his position in the school and enlisted in the 15th Iowa Volunteers, one Company of which was raised in his home county. The Regiment went into camp near Keokuk, Iowa, and after a few weeks drill, this Regiment was marched aboard transports on the Mississippi River at Keokuk and taken South to help the Union Army engaged with the Con- federate army at Cornith, Mississippi. His first engagements were at the Battles of Shiloh and Lookout Mountain. He went through both battles without any mishap, and was promoted to First Sergeant of his Company, when he was taken ill from ex- posure and poor food and was sent home to recover his health. A few weeks after his return to his home, President Lincoln made another call for troops, and he was drafted as recruiting officer to raise a company of cavalry in Clark County. He was appointed First Lieutenant of the Company. His Captain was a political appointee and very soon was transferred to an office job and Lieutenant Christy became the Commanding Officer of his Company, which was made a part of the 8th Iowa Cavalry and when they were ready to go to the front, he became Capt. V illiam Christy. His regiment was incorporated into the West- ern Division under General Grant. His Regiment was employed in scout duties during General Grant's campaign in the west and was in several major engagements. When General Sherman began his famous march to the sea, the 8th Iowa Cavalry was a part of the army on that memorable march. My father by that time had served as the adjutant of the Regiment and had been promoted to Major and then to Lieutenant Colonel, and as his Colonel was another political appointee and did not care for field service, had gotten himself detailed to detached work, and father was in com- mand of the Regiment. One early morning when the 8th Iowa Cavalry was in advance of the moving army, the Regiment was ambushed by the enemy and nearly annihilated. My father was wounded three times and left for dead on the field. He, with the Chief Surgeon of the Regiment, and the Sergeant Major, were found by the Confederates behind their lines, and father was placed in a Confederate improvised hospital, and the Chief Sur- geon, whose wounds were not serious, was commanded by the Confederate Chief Surgeon to care for his fellow wounded Union soldiers. The Sergeant Major, who had been one of the Clark County recruits, also was only slightly wounded, and he kept his wounds open by putting red pepper in them so they would not heal, as he was detailed to nurse his Colonel who had been desper- ately injured, having been shot through the lungs, his left hand and arm shattered by bullets. The Confederate Surgeon wanted to amputate the injured arm but father insisted if he was going to die he would die whole of body. It was while in this Confederate Hospital that he decided if he recovered he would become a Mason, for the Confederate Chief Surgeon was a Mason, and the Surgeon from the 8th Iowa Cavalry was also a Mason, and the Union officer demanded bandages and drugs for his wounded comrades and while the Confederate Surgeon, hated with a dead- ly hate his Union wounded prisoners, he had to give the Union officer whatever he demanded of him, a brother Mason. The splendid care of the two officers of his Regiment finally resulted in his sufficiently recovering to leave his bed and be sent to the Confederate Prison Camp at Milan, Georgia, and later to Libby Prison where he was incarcerated until the war was virtually over. A few weeks before the surrender of General Lee to General Grant, he was exchanged and sent home, and when the Regiment was mustered out of service in Iowa, the Lieutenant Colonel was there to greet his old comrades and receive his honorable dis- 4 charge with them. For more than a year neither his family nor his soldiers knew he had not been killed, as he was not permitted during the time he was a prisoner of war to communicate with anyone at home. Soon after his exchange and return to his home, he went to Oswego, Illinois, to visit a favorite cousin, and on Sunday morn- ing went with her to church. After church he met Miss Carrie Bennett, a girl chum of his cousin, and he told the cousin "there was the lady he was going to make his wife." He made ardent love to this lady and before his return to Iowa to be mustered out of service, Miss Bennett had promised to marry him. My mother often told me that father appealed to her first because he had been a soldier and he showed the marks of the year's confine- ment in a war prison, where he had had scarcely enough food to keep body and soul together, and his wounded arm which was still carried in a sling. Father was six feet and two inches tall and when he first met mother, had been reduced in weight to 114 pounds. Her sympathy was first aroused and then her love. Their marriage occurred at Grandfather Bennett's home near Chicago, very soon after he was mustered out of the army. They went to Burlington, Iowa, to live where father and his brother had purchased an in- terest in a Bryant Stratton Business College. After a year the business college was sold and father and mother and son Lloyd moved to Osceola, Iowa, where my father entered the banking business with a long time friend. The banking or similar busi- ness became his life work, and he was engaged in it almost con- stantly until his death. After six years in the bank in Osceola, at the solicitation of former army comrades, he permitted his name to go before the State Republican Convention for the nomination for State Treasurer. He was unanimously nominated and at the subsequent election was overwhelmingly elected. We then moved to Des Moines and for two terms, of two years each, he handled the funds of the State of Iowa with credit to himself and turned over to his successor the funds of the State with every dollar ac- counted for. He then returned to the banking business, buying an interest in the Capital City Bank of Des Moines and later sell- ing his interest in it and organized the Merchants National Bank of Des Moines. Soon after the organization of the new bank a political cam- paign was launched by two prominent Republicans of Iowa for the nomination on the Republican ticket for Governor of the State. Buren R. Sherman had been State Auditor while my father was State Treasurer and the other candidate, Mr. Larabee, had been speaker of the House of Representatives in the State Legislature. Mr. Sherman asked my father to take charge of his campaign for the nomination. The State Convention was held in Des Moines during the last week of September. Neither prom-

inent candidate had sufficient votes to be nominated. There were several "dark horses" whose names had been placed before the convention, and it was the hope that one of them could draw enough votes from either Mr. Sherman's or Mr. Larabee's forces to nominate. During a whole day's balloting no change was made in the alignment of forces. The Sherman forces, with the help of the independents, kept the Larabee party from adjourn- ing. After one o'clock in the morning the independents threw their votes to the Sherman forces and Mr. Sherman received the nomination. My father had worn himself out during the day and half of the night contest and was very warm when he left the Con- vention Hall for his home. He contracted a severe cold which ran into pneumonia and after he was able to leave his bed, found he was afflicted with asthma. His physician informed him that this affliction was a result of his wounds received during the Civil War, and instructed him to leave Iowa at once and find a warm, dry climate. My mother's brother was in the mercantile business in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and as soon as he was able to travel, he left his business, and family for Albuquerque, hoping to get relief. For several months he helped uncle in the store but the asthma still troubled him greatly. The Santa Fe Railroad was then building across Arizona on its way to California. The Chief Engineer in charge of construction at the front had been an army comrade of father's. They met in Albuquerque as he (the engi- neer), was enroute to his camp near Flagstaff, Arizona, and after a trip East this friend invited father to be his guest and go out to Flagstaff where he believed the asthma would be benefited. The friend's belief was well founded and his health was greatly improved. He then began to look around for a location in Ari- zona to which he could bring his family, and again get into the banking business. At Flagstaff he became acquainted with Mr. 6

W. J. Murphy and Mr. W. D. Fulwiler who were engaged as con- tractors in the construction of the Santa Fe Railroad through Northern Arizona. Mr. Murphy and Col. Christy were drawn together for they were both Civil War veterans and members of the Grand Army of the Republic and men of broad vision. A friendship was formed that lasted for over twenty years, or until my father's death. Mr. Murphy at the time of their first meeting had just returned from the Salt River Valley where he had gone to bid on the construction of the Arizona canal. He was sue- cessful and had been granted the contract to build a portion of the canal. As Mr. Murphy was moving his outfit to the new work, he suggested to father that the new town of Phoenix, in his opinion, was an ideal place for a bank. So father accompanied him to Phoenix, and soon after the Valley Bank of Phoenix was organized with Mr. Murphy as President, General M. H. Sher- man, Territorial Superintendent of Public Schools and later to become the street car pioneer magnate and multi-millionaire of Los Angeles, as Vice-President; Mr. Christy, Cashier and Man- ager and E. J. Bennitt, my mother's cousin, as Assistant Cashier. The bank from the time of its opening for business in the Fall of 1883 and during the whole of my father's life was known as the "Bank of Service" to the farmer and stockman who were trying to get a start in the new country known as Arizona Territory. Early in January, 1884, father sent for his family to join him in Phoenix. We left Iowa in extremely cold weather and after seven days' constant travelling, left the train at Maricopa, from which place it was necessary to go by horse-drawn vehicles to the New Eldorado, called Phoenix. We were met by father in a lum- ber wagon drawn by two mules and told that 30 miles from there was the place the new home was to be made. We left Maricopa early in the morning and just about sundown, after a whole day's constant driving, we came through the break in the Phoenix Mountains known as Telegraph Pass, and got the first view of Phoenix and the Salt River Valley. The old County Courthouse, which was recently demolished to erect our palatial new one, had just been completed and with its tower was the most prominent thing to be seen. Phoenix had probably 1500 people within its confines and the whole of Maricopa County had possibly 1500 more people. We had left Iowa in snow and sleet, and in our new home Spring with its flowers and budding trees had already ar- 7 rived. Phoenix at that time was a wide open town, every other business was a saloon witli open doors where gambling devices could be viewed to entice the men from the mines or ranches with a few dollars to spend, and there were also the girl saloon singers, who in their cracked voices lured the men into the saloons. That sort of a town did not seem to my father to furnish a very good influence for his three young sons, so he soon went to the country and bought from a settler a relinquishment on a 160-acre home- stead and built a home away from the town and its influences. As father had to go to town each day, he bought himself a fine buggy and high-stepping team of horses. He was known as the man who drove the best rig in the Valley. Automobiles were coming into use before his death, but they never held any allure for him. His team that ran away with him at least once a week, next to his family, was his chief joy. The purchase of the farm put him into the agricultural class as well as banking. In the early days in this Valley when there were no railroads running into the Valley, there were hardly any markets for the grain and hay, which were almost the sole agri- cultural products raised, except the mines and the United States Military Posts. Many of the farmers were purchasing range cat- tie either in Sonora, Mexico, or from the ranges in Northern Ari- zona. The cattle were driven to the Valley and fattened and then again driven to Maricopa, loaded on the cars and shipped to Southern California, Colorado or Kansas and sold. I remem- ber one Pall my father bought a bunch of cattle to pasture over the winter, from a stockman near Prescott. He sent my brother George and myself with some cowboys to get them and deliver them at our farm. It usually took more than a week to make the drive from Prescott to Phoenix. One evening on the drive we ar- rived at the North end of the Black Canyon Mountains and as it was too late to go over the Mountain that night we corralled them at a ranchman's headquarters and went up on the mountain to make our camp, where it was cooler and away from mosquitoes. At daybreak the next morning we started back to the corral and started the day's drive. We had gone but a short distance when we came upon the stage that left Prescott for Phoenix the night before. The stage driver had been held up and his mail sacks and Wells Fargo box taken away from him a few nights before, so without any demand from us, he threw out the mail bag and 8 started to hand us the express box. We were very much amused at his mistake and he very much relieved when informed we were only cowboys with no holdup intentions. When we arrived sev- eral days later at the farm with our cattle, and I told my father of the joke on us, he replied the stage driver could not be blamed for his mistake, as we were surely a tough looking bunch, after following those cattle for several days on the old Black Canyon Road. In those days the stages, and they were the only public means of travelling from one point to another in the Territory, were frequently robbed by bandits or marauding Indians. In the early eighties there were two noted Indian raids that of "Geronimo" and the "Kid." The vigilance of the United States army with headquarters in Prescott and under the command of that famous Indian fighter, General Crook, after these two out- breaks, ended Indian wars in Arizona. With the army in Ari- zona at that time was Lieut. Alex 0. Brodie, a West Point gradu- ate, and during the Spanish American War was the Lieutenant Colonel in Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders Regiment and afterward appointed by President Roosevelt Governor of Arizona Territory. He and my father in later years became closely asso- ciated together in politics and business. Soon after Father and Mr. W. J. Murphy became associated in the Valley Bank, Mr. Murphy took over the active manage- ment of the Arizona canal and then father joined with Mr. Mur- phy, Mr. Bennitt and Mr. Fulwiler in organizing the Arizona Improvement Company, and was elected Manager of the Com- pany. The Arizona Improvement Company was organized to purchase the controlling interests in the three irrigation canals lying South of the new Arizona Canal and the North Side of the Salt River. This was accomplished and the irrigation system on the North Side of the river were then co-ordinated and the water

distributed from one office, and a Cross-Cut Canal was built connecting the highest canal (the Arizona Canal with the other three canals), viz.: The Grand, Maricopa and Salt River Canals. A dam was built at the head of the Arizona Canal and all of the water, when the river was low, diverted into the Arizona Canal and then distributed to the other canals. This plan saved water to the consumer farmers, as it saved the extreme evaporation in summer from the water running down a hot sandy river bed. This worked very well until a flood season occurred when the 9

river washed out the plank dam at the head of the Arizona Canal and the canals were without water with worlds of it going down to the Gulf with no way to turn it into the canals. The dam was rebuilt several times when new floods occurred, and at last the Arizona Improvement Company's funds and credit were ex- hausted and the Court was asked to appoint a Receiver for the Company. A joint Receivership was appointed and father was one of the two appointed. The minority water right holders in the three older canals applied to the Court to determine their rights as to prior appropriation of water and from this came the famous "Kibbey Decision" whose judgment is still the law gov- erning water distribution during times of water shortage in this Valley. It was at this time seen that a storage dam on the Salt River to impound the water during rainy seasons was deemed absolutely necessary for the future growth of the Salt River Val- ley, and the development of Arizona. A few men, of whom my father was one, were called together to study the prob- lem confronting the Valley. It was decided to organize the leaders of the Valley and work out some plan whereby the storage of the flood waters of the Salt River could be accomplished. On this committee were: B. A. Prowler, its chairman; W. J. Murphy, William Christy, W. D. Eulwiler, Dr. J. C. Norton, Dwight B. Heard, Lin Orme, Sims Ely, Sr., E. J. Bennitt, and others. Judge Kibbey was the Legal Adviser for the Committee. It was decided to organize a Water Storage District and ask Congress to permit Maricopa County to bond itself for enough to build a dam on the river and purchase the rights of a man named Hen- derson and his associates, who had filed on the present site of the Roosevelt Dam for the purpose of erecting a storage dam by priv- ate enterprise. The government at Washington was appealed to, to send two competent engineers to co-operate with local engi- neers in drawing plans for the dam, and making necessary sur- veys and investigations as to engineering problems. The Com- mittee was at work on these matters when the National Reclama- tion Act was passed by Congress and it was then hoped that the Arizona project might be considered by the United States Gov- crnment and the same was taken up with the Reclamation Bu- reau of* the National Government. About this time President Mc- Ivinley was assassinated and Vice-President Roosevelt became President of the United States. It was decided that the oppor- 10 tune time had arrived to urge Arizona's claim for recognition. The plans and surveys for the dam were in splendid shape hav- ing been approved by the Government Engineers and the Presi- dent had just filled the vacancy in the Governorship of Arizona by the appointment of his fellow Rough Rider, Col. Alex. 0. Brodie. The Committee chose Governor Brodie and William Christy to place the claims for Arizona's recognition before the President. They left for Washington at once and immediately upon their arrival, were received by the President. Their re- quest that the Tonto Dam site, as it was then called, be one of those to be recommended for immediate construction, received the approval of the President and soon the Government Engi- neers were on the ground and the Roosevelt Dam, named after the great President who was Arizona's truest friend, was under construction, the Salt River Committee having turned over all of its rights, survey reports and data to the Government Engineers. The Committee then took up the formation of a corporation to handle the water distribution, the purchase of the canal systems of the Valley and the carrying out of the provision of the Reclam- ation Act as applied to the Salt River Project. From this came the corporation known as the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association, which gave every farmer, who signed the articles, one share of stock in the corporation for every acre of land he had signed. The Articles of Incorporation received the approval of the Secretary of the Interior and has been the model suggested hv the Government in handling of the business of every subse- quent Irrigation Project under Government control. My father had a great part in drawing the plans and organization of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association. He considered the work done toward securing the President's approval to the order, for the building of Roosevelt Dam, the first built under the Reclamation Act and the most successfully operated in the United States, also his part in the formation of the Salt River Valley Water Users' Association as the two crowning achieve- ments of his life. It is a sad thing to his family that he did not live to see the great Roosevelt Dam completed and the stored water flowing down to bless the thirsty lands of the Salt River Valley, he loved so well and for which he wrought so hard. The hard work done by him on the Committee for the building cf Roosevelt Dam and the organization of the Salt River Valley 11

Water Users' Association broke down his resistance power. Then his old enemy, the asthma, came back to afflict him and after some months of striving to again regain his health, on March 23, 1903, after a severe attack of the asthma, his life went out. His passing was mourned by his family, who knew his kindly Chris- tian Chraeter and leadership, and by the whole community who honored him for the innumerable things he had done to make Salt River Valley a better place in which to live. I have said before he was a religious man. He had an ab- solute trust in God and in early life associated himself with the Methodist Church. While living in Des Moines, Iowa, he was for several years Superintendent of the Sunday School and as he was then a splendid singer, led the church choir, but after being stricken with asthma he could not sing any longer. When he came to Phoenix he joined the little struggling Methodist Church and soon became one of its active members. For many years he was President of the Board of Trustees of the local church and when the present church building was erected became chairman of the building committee. He associated himself with every en- terprise that tended to the upbuilding of morality and right liv- ing. He organized the first temperance society in Phoenix and became its President. This pioneer temperance society was the mother of the sentiment that made Arizona a dry State long be- fore the 18th Amendment was adopted. He, with Dr. J. C. Nor- ton, organized the Young Men's Christian Association and was its first President.

In politics he was a Republican. He often said he could hardly belong to any other party, after the experience he had in the Civil War and being the son of a man that helped in the organization of that party. One of the things that he was proud of, was that he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln for Presi- dent. He was not a "rock-ribbed" partisan, however. He al- ways tried to get good men nominated by his party, but if the opposite party placed on its ticket a cleaner man or a more com- petent one to administer the affairs of State, he voted for him. His Democratic friends, and they were legion, recognized his po- litical sagacity and often asked him to plan their campaigns be- fore a convention was held to nominate some particular candi- date. Dr. II. A. Hughes, a close personal friend of his and a leader in the Democratic party of Arizona, often consulted with 12 him on plans for nominating some Democratic friend for a coun- ty office at an impending convention. He was for several years chairman of the Republican Territorial Committee and before coming to Arizona was chairman of the Iowa State Republican Committee. He never but once held an elective office. That was State Treasurer of Iowa. During the Territorial administrations of Governors Irwin, Murphy and Brodie, he held the position under appointment of these three governors of Territorial Treasurer of Arizona. Dur- ing his incumbency the floating debts of the towns, counties and the Territory were funded. The funding bonds found a market in New York, through his acquaintance with New York bankers. He was able to sell over two millions of dollars worth of funding bonds, being the first time Arizona had been recog- nized financially in the Eastern Money Markets. He was a supporter of the many efforts made to have Ari- zona Territory admitted to the Sisterhood of States and was a delegate to a Constitutional Convention that adopted a consti- tution for the State of Arizona, but which never became opera- tive, as Congress for several years thereafter refused to admit Arizona. He did not live to see the day when Arizona finally won her right by the act of Congress to become a Sovereign State. Neither religious nor political affiliations of his friends made any difference to him. Hosts of people of all religious and political faith were his staunch friends. I recall one close friendship— Col. Wilson, an attorney of Prescott and for one term Arizona's Delegate to Congress, was a veteran of the Civil War and fought on the Confederate side. He and my father each commanded a regiment at the Battle of Wilson's Creek but on opposing sides. They learned of this after they had been residents of Arizona for some time. Col. Wilson often came to Phoenix on legal business and frequently called at father's office, and they spent delight- ful times in recalling their war experiences. One year the Demo- cratic party named Col. Wilson as its candidate for Delegate to Congress and the Republicans nominated Col. Brodie. Father was chosen to manage his friend Brodie's campaign. Soon after Col. Wilson's nomination he called at the bank and asked to see

father, who was sick in his private office. The Colonel was ad- mitted but shortly came out with a signed promissory note and word from father to let the Colonel have a sum of money he need- 13

ed, to pay his campaign expenses. I was teller of the bank and cashed the note. He said: "Lloyd, I was afraid yonr father would not accommodate me this time for I am a candidate against his friend Brodie, but Col. Christy never lets his politics enter- fere with his business. He loaned me the money as cheerfully as he has often done before. I told him I expected to defeat his and my own personal friend, Brodie, at the election. When I go to Washington, if there is anything I can do for you, I will be more than glad to do it. Your father replied that if there was a va- cancy in Arizona's representative at West Point Military Acad- emy during my term as Delegate from Arizona at Washington, he would like to have his youngest son, William C. Christy, ap- pointed to the place. I gave him my promise to appoint the young man should I have the opportunity to make such an ap- pointment and you, 'Lloyd,' are a witness to my promise." As was expected, Col. Wilson defeated Col. Brodie for the election. The Democratic Party in those days was overwhelmingly in the majority. On the March 4th following the election, Col. Wilson did go to Washington as Arizona's Delegate to Congress and less than three weeks from that time, my father passed to his Eternal Reward. One day about a month thereafter, Col. Wilson, having returned to Arizona, came to the bank and asked for a personal interview with me. He told me the day before he had received a telegram from the Secretary of War requesting him to appoint a man to represent Arizona at West Point as the Arizonan there had been discharged for hazing. The Colonel told me he had not said a word to any person about the contents of that telegram, but took the first train to Phoenix to appoint Col. Christy's son to the place. My brother was called to meet him and told he was to receive the appointment. His name was immediately wired to the War Department as the new cadet from Arizona. He, how- ever, gave my brother one admonition: "Young man you must pass that entrance examination for I do not propose to appoint any alternate. Call on my friend Col. Brodie and he will tell you what you need to study to get through,'' and also said: " I expect I will get severely criticised by my Democratic friends for appointing a prominent Republican's son to West Point since there are so many Democrats who would like to have their sons appointed." He afterwards told me he did get criticised for his action but his friendship for my father far exceeded political 14 expediency. My brother, thanks to Col. Brodie's coaching and Col. Wilson's admonition, did pass the entrance examinations and caused the Colonel no embarrassment for he graduated near the head of his class, and is now a Major in the Regular Afmy. Many other friends, probably, would have done as much as Col. Wilson had done if the opportunity had presented itself, as father had proven himself to be a friend to every one with whom he came in contact. Father was a man with a very happy disposi- tion and one who trusted every one who had the appearance of being honest. He very rarely lost his temper and could see good in most people. He was adored by his four sons and one daugh- ter, and my mother's love and confidence in him was supreme. His going was so great a shock to her that she did not care to live without him. In two short years thereafter she joined him in the Heavenly Mansion prepared by the Master, he had de- voutly followed through more than sixty years. I have recalled the above recorded incidents of my father's life through personal knowledge of some of the many outstand- ing events in his busy life. I was associated with him in business for many years. His early experiences I learned through hear- ing him occasionally relate some happening of his boyhood, or early manhood. He was very modest and never tried to impress others with his superiority. But as a son who knew him so well, T can truthfully say he was a man who honored Arizona by his presence here and by the works he wrought for its welfare. I have written this rather disconnected story of my father's life for I want my children and grandchildren to know they have inherited that which is greater than riches—an honorable and respected name from a man who was the personification of all that was good.