Photos: The notable characters who saw Arizona into statehood
Learn more about the leaders, citizens and rogues who made Arizona what it was by statehood on Feb. 14, 1912.
Gallery originally published in 2011.
Mary 'Mamie' Bernard Aguirre: Headed two UA departments; her diary told of Old West
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Ralph Cameron: He charged $1 toll to use Grand Canyon trail
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Gen. George Crook: Apache fighter he believed Indians belonged on reservations
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Fred Harvey: He wasnβt an Arizonan, but he left a big mark on tourism here
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Charles Trumbull Hayden: Early trader, probate judge and founder of Tempe
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Henry Clay Hooker: Selling turkeys helped his business, ranches
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John Lorenzo Hubbell: Most famous of the Indian traders, family operated 30-plus trading posts
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Samuel Hughes: He came in search of health
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Louis J.F. Jaeger: Survived arrow in neck; ran Colorado River ferry
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Judge Joseph H. Kibbey: Ruled on water law, fought school segregation
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Jacob Mansfeld: He opened the first public library and helped found the University of Arizona
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Manuelito: Navajo warrior evolved later in life into statesman who embraced Americans
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Nampeyo: A great Hopi potter, she revived a historic style
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Esteban Ochoa: A merchant prince, and a generous and modest citizen
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Federico JosΓ© MarΓa Ronstadt: Tucsonβs music maker
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Anson Pacely Killen Safford: Arizonaβs 3rd territorial governor and the father of our schools
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Bishop John Baptist Salpointe: The cleric who built things
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There was no operating church in Arizona when Salpointeβs party of four β three priests and a teacher β came from New Mexico in 1866. Salpointe, newly named vicar general of the Arizona missions, was their leader. He was a Frenchman who had arrived in America as a missionary six years earlier. Within two years of his arrival in Tucson, Arizonaβs status in the church was elevated to a vicariate apostolic and Salpointe was named bishop. His territory stretched east to El Paso and north to Utah. Over the next 15-plus years, he oversaw the establishment of many parishes and schools β Prescott, Phoenix and Tombstone among them. He eventually became archbishop of Santa Fe, but returned to Tucson after his retirement.
John William Swilling: His recycling project created what is now Phoenix
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Swilling had been a Confederate soldier and deserter, a Union freighter and a prospector. During travels through the Salt River Valley, he noticed ancient Indian irrigation canals and figured they could be rebuilt to bring water to farms. He organized investors in 1867 and built the Swilling Ditch at the place we call Phoenix. Swilling found trouble in the alcohol and drugs he took to relieve headaches and back pain, and he was under investigation for stagecoach robbery when he died at the Yuma jail in 1878.
Godfrey & Stanley Sykes: Inventors, makers and menders of anything
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The English-born brothers arrived in Flagstaff in 1886 and soon opened a bicycle shop, where they advertised that they could fix almost anything. They gathered around them a group called βThe Busy Beesβ to exchange the latest scientific gossip. Thatβs how they came to know many of Arizonaβs leading minds of the day. Though they had no experience, the brothers designed and built domes for telescopes in Flagstaff and Tucson. Stanley worked at Flagstaffβs Lowell Observatory for 46 years, while Godfrey moved to Tucson in 1906 to become facilities manager for the Carnegie laboratory on Tumamoc Hill. Godfrey explored and wrote about our desert and the Colorado River delta, among other research. His autobiography, βA Westerly Trend,β told how the Western frontier looked to a Britisher.
David King Udall: Mormon pioneer, polygamist, patriarch of leaders
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Udall was 29 when he was called upon by Brigham Young in 1880 to lead 50 Mormon families to Northeast Arizona, where they founded the town of St. Johns. His group was one of many that came here starting in the 1870s. Mormons established Pinetop, Show Low, Mesa, Safford, Thatcher and St. David, among others. By 1890, the census showed 6,500 Mormons in the territory. Mormons were admired for their hard work and community-building, including the opening of many schools. There also was hostility toward them, though, for the polygamist practices of some members, Udall among them. That eased after the church officially abandoned polygamy in 1890. Udall and his two wives had 18 children. Two became Arizona Supreme Court justices, one a state legislator and one a mayor of Phoenix. The next generation included three mayors and two U.S. congressmen β Stewart and Morris. The current generation includes two U.S. senators β Tom and Mark.
Harry C. Wheeler: Final captain of Arizona Rangers; rejected by U.S. Military Academy because he was too short
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Taking a lead from Texas, Arizonaβs Legislature in 1901 established a force of roving lawmen. It was called the Arizona Rangers, and it arrested thousands of cattle rustlers, train robbers, killers and others before it was disbanded eight years later. The Rangers concentrated their work in southeastern Arizona and had the cooperation of Mexican officials to cross the international line in pursuit of desperadoes. Wheeler was the third and final leader of the Rangers, a sometimes secretive bunch that included no more than 26 men at a time. He was paid $175 a month for the dangerous work and had to provide his own horse.
Henry Wickenburg: His mine produced riches, but not for him
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The Vulture Mine northwest of Phoenix had so much gold that at first it was visible to the eye. Or so the lore goes. Wickenburg discovered it in the early 1860s, but didnβt have the financial wherewithal to develop it. He sold for $100,000 or less. Estimates of the Vultureβs production vary from $3 million to $30 million. Wickenburg did obtain something of lasting value β a town named for him.
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