• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The history of Tubac, 1752-1948 Item Type text; Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) Authors Bents, Doris Winnifred, 1918- Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 09/10/2021 20:43:55 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/553779 THE HISTORY OF TUBAC, 1752-1948 by * / r Doris W. Bents .A Thesis ; submitted to the faculty of the Department of History7 . in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS . in the Graduate College, University of Arizona 1949 Approved* / ) Direct* of Thesis ,9 PREFACE The history of Tubac is unique in that it can be divided into five distinct periods: namely, the early Spanish period, the Mexican regime, the early American occupation by mining interests, the attempts at resettlement after Apache disaster and that period -which may be re­ ferred to as modern Tubac. In the writing of this history an attempt has been made to make use of these natural divisions to set forth more clearly the circumstances which have led to a very unusual succession of events. Though the problem of this thesis has been mainly to deter­ mine the historicity of incidents which have taken place -within Tubac during its 196 years of occupation and to relate their occurrence in an orderly fashion, an endeavor has also been made to clarify Tubac * s posi­ tion in the early colonization of the South-west under three consecutive regimes and to account for its gradual decline in importance since the Civil War. Sources used in the gathering of materials for the preparation of The History of Tubac have been as varied as the subject matter treated herein. Manuscript materials. United States government surveys and reports, county records, books, newspapers, periodicals and inter­ views have all been employed. To my advisor. Dr. R. C. Ewing, I am indebted for the use of information gleaned by him in research for The Pima Uprising concerning events leading to the founding of Tubac and the location of the first Spanish garrison upon Arizona soil. To v n -:; the Reverend Victor R. Stoner for his possession of the Guevavi and Tumacacori mission manuscripts from the Tucson Cathedral Archives and his willing translation of pertinent entries, to the employees of the library of the Tucson Pioneer Historical Society who graciously assisted me in my use of Poston's papers and gave me access to the early editions of The Arizonian and to Mrs. Sally Brewer of the Tumacacori mission muse­ um library, to Miss Cora Everhart of the office of the county superintend­ ent of schools of Santa Cruz County and to Principal Mabel Rentfrow of the Tubac State Graded School, I owe my sincere gratitude. To William Lowe whose recollections of incidents throughout the years of his life­ time of residence in Tubac provide much of the history of modern Tubac, I am obligated for prompt response to dozens of inquiries. The History of Tubac has been made possible by these and many others whose help and knowledge have been at my disposal, and to them I am grateful for what­ ever merits my work may embrace. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I. The Beginnings of Tubac 1 Chapter II. Tubac under Commander Juan Bautista de Anza 24 Chapter III. The Mexican Regime to the First Triumph of the Apache 55 Chapter IV. The Company of American Enterprise to Tubac 82 Chapter V. The Development of Tubac as a Mining Town 106 Chapter VI. The Heyday of the Mines and the Third Triumph of the Apache 141 Chapter VII. The Resettlement of Tubac to the Final Apache Triumph 163 Chapter VIII. The Beginnings of Modern Tubac 185 Chapter IX. Modern Tubac 205 Bibliography 226 CHAPTER I The Beginnings of Tubac With the establishment of the northernmost Spanish garrison at the site of an old Pima settlement on the Santa Crus River in Pimeria Alta, Tubac had its beginning. However, events taking place on the Spanish frontier long before Tubac*s settlement in 1752 were responsible for the founding of this outpost in the heart of the Indian country. The movement leading to the establishment of practically all the northern settlements and garrisons was the movement to subdue and Christianize the Indian, the movement which brought the Indian not only the Reman Catholic faith and a few luxuries of the civilized world but also a society of increasing responsibilities seldom appreciated by the in­ dependent redskin. Christianization of the natives on the northwestern mainland of New Spain began as early as 1591 with the advent of the Jesuit Black Robes and proceeded methodically through Sinaloa, Durango and Sonora. Gradually the Black Robes marched northward toward the Sonora wilderness to bring their Christian faith to its heathen inhabitants. During the first quarter of the seventeenth century they were pursuing their labors among the Tarahumares, keeping close to the foothills of the Sierra Madras. A short-lived mission in the San Pablo Valley in 1611 and San Miguel de las Bocas in Bspiritu Santo Valley in 1630 marked their progress. During the next quarter of the seventeenth century the movement gained momentum. A Spanish settlement and garrison at Parral - 2 - was established in the years 1631 and 1632. By 1639 San Felipe and San Gerdnimo Huexotitlan had been founded and by 1645 the northward march had reached the Yaqui River Valley. Six other pueblos had been added 1 to the number of Christian settlements by 1648. By this time, however, two very disheartening Indian wars had interrupted Jesuit progress, the first of these in 1644 and the second in 1648, The garrison at Parral and the mission of San Miguel withstood the first outbreak, but that of 1648 among the Tarahumares continued for four years and destroyed practically every vestige of Jesuit labor. It was not until peace was again restored that the priests could reoccupy their abandoned establish­ ments, but in spite of their various setbacks, they moved forward. By 1668 the three new missions at Natividad, San Mateo and San Ignacio were founded and the Jesuits could look with satisfaction to five organized 2 pueblos, each with a priest in charge. By 1673 the Sierra had been penetrated as far as Yepomera aid Tutuaoa. The climate aid terrain of the region was decidedly a hindrance but the missions flourished. Eight Jesuits among the Tarahumares served thirty-two pueblos in 1678, and by , 3 1682 more than thirty new churches had been built. The Indiana, how­ ever, did not always peacefully accept the responsibilities foisted upon them with Spanish infiltration. In I69O Fathers Juan Ortiz Foronda and Manuel Sanchez were murdered and six of the missions - . 1 .... San Francisco Bar ja and Satevo were established on a tributary of the Conchos. A. E. Hughes, The Beginnings of Spanish Settlement in the El Paso District, p. 300................... ............................. 3 ...... H. E. Bolton, Rim of Christendom, p. 21. - 3 — destroyed as the Black Robes were expelled. Again peace was restored and the Jesuits returned with such success that Christian outposts soon existed as far north as the Sonora River. It was a remarkable movement that took place in the wilderness# Black Robes moved ahead of prospectors, soldiers and fortune seekers. As the frontier was pushed northward, mining camps, haciendas and army outposts sprang up in the footsteps of the padres. Beyond the Spanish settlements Indians were gathered into villages, indoctrinated in Christianity and taught the white man*s ways or driven back as in the case of those Indians who resented Spanish encroachment. The natives certainly were not all kindly disposed toward the Jesuit missionary. The native medicine men were jealous of this new competitor and anxious to stir up feeling against him. Furthermore, secular Spaniards, ever at the heels of established peaceful settlement, exploited Indian labor in mines and on haciendas. The result was continuing and growing unrest which was constantly to harass the bearers of the Faith and Spanish civilization. In spite of all, however, the Jesuits moved on. In .1681 Father Eusebio Kino had been commissioned by his 4 superiors, and generously supported by the Spanish government, to penetrate the heathen lands of northern Sonora and convert those natives which might be found living there. His missionary activity was extended throughout the region known as Pimeria Alta, lying between the Magdalena and Gila Rivers, and inhabited by Pimas and Sobaipuris. By making allies of. the more peaceful Pimas, Spain hoped to form an - 4 — 5 effectivd buffer against the more hostile Indiana to the north. Father Kino reached the headwaters of the Sonora River In 1686 and established himself In the San Miguel Valley during the next year, where Z he founded hie first mission, that of Nuestra Se&ora de los Dolores# Fro® that time until his death in 1711 he worked among the natives# and located the first Christian outposts In the Santa Cruz River Valley during his fourteen entradas across what is now the Arlzona-tfexico 6 7 . ... border# His first journey into the region which forms the setting for the history of Tubae came about in December 1690 quite by accident, as Kino himself tells it* It was our intention to turn back from El Tucubavia to Cocospera, but from the north some messengers or couriers of the Sobaipuris of San Xavier del Bac, more than 40 leagues journey and from San Cayetano del Tumagacori, came to meet us, with some crosses, which they gave us, kneel­ ing with great veneration, and asking us on behalf of all their people to go to their rancherias also.

Load more

  244

Copy Link