Arizona Legal Lore
Thomas Barnum, the first sheriff of Maricopa County, won the post in 1871, after a duel felled the original two candidates James Favorite and J.A. Chenoweth.
In the early 1880's, James Addison Reavis, the "Baron of Arizona," tried to lay claim to 12.7 million acres of Arizona and New Mexico- the so-called Peralta land grant. Reavis married a California woman and attempted to pass her off as a descendant of the Peraltas, but his claims were rejected by the U.S. Court of Private Land Claims in 1895 and Peralta-Reavis was jailed for fraud.
Camp McDowell, 20 miles northeast of the Salt River Valley, was established in 1865 to protect residents of Prescott, Wickenburg and other mining towns from marauding Apaches.
John W. "Jack" Swilling, a Confederate deserter, Union scout, farmer, miner, speculator, and profligate drinker, built the first modern irrigation system in the Valley in 1867 on the ruins of Hohokam canals. Many also credit him with giving the city of Phoenix its name. Although he died broke in a Yuma jail, accused of highway robber, Swilling deserves more than anyone else to be known as "the father of Phoenix".
In 1875 the George Loring's store on East Washington served as a general store, post office and Wells Fargo station and briefly as the County Courthouse. Right next door - the Palace Saloon
In November 1888, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce was organized. Three months later the territorial capital was moved permanently from Prescott to Phoenix, with the legislature and the governor occupying the new city hall on the block between Washington and Jefferson from First to Second Streets. The paper, the Arizona Republican, began publication on May 19, 1890, with the financial backing of Clark Churchill, then the Arizona Territory's attorney general, and others. Phoenix's population in 1890 was 3,152, Maricopa County's 10,986. By 1900, the population of Phoenix grew to 5,500 and first class department stores and hotels began to appear along Washington Street.
During the 1890's, parades along Washington Street were a popular tourist attraction. "Wild Indians" in war paint and traditional dress served as a reminder of Arizona's not-to-distant past.
Hundred of spectators crowded on the top of Roosevelt Dam on dedication day, March 18, 1911. The dam assured an end to the droughts and floods that had plagued the Salt River Valley since settlement and in his speech, former president Theodore Roosevelt hailed Phoenix's "glorious future" as "one of the richest agricultural areas in the world."
On February 14, 1912, President William H. Taft signed a proclamation making Arizona the 48th state.
Arizona's population at statehood was more than 204,000. Phoenix had in excess of 11,000 residents and Maricopa County more than 34,000.
By 1917, almost 800 miles of canals criss-crossed the Salt River Valley. One observer, noting the 250,000 acres of fertile land, wrote, "Such acres with their never-failing streams of water mean production, profit and contented life."
An electricity generating plant run by steam, one of the first in the West, was built in Phoenix in 1886, and the railroad arrived in 1887.
Much of the above information was taken from The Bench and the Bar, A History of Maricopa County's Legal Professions by Earl Zarbin, Windsor Publications, Inc., Chatsworth, California 1991.
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