Establishment of the tombstone town site



Arizona State UniversityEstablishment of the tombstone town siteHistory 591: Digital Historyright3657600December 1, 2016Anthony hampe1000000December 1, 2016Anthony hampeTable of Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Table of Figures PAGEREF _Toc468432856 \h 2Establishment of the Tombstone Town Site PAGEREF _Toc468432857 \h 3Figures PAGEREF _Toc468432858 \h 13Bibliography PAGEREF _Toc468432859 \h 18Table of Figures TOC \h \z \c "Figure" Figure 1. Tombstone Male Population and Married Population Percentage. PAGEREF _Toc468432346 \h 13Figure 2. Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Map, Tombstone, AZ, 1886. PAGEREF _Toc468432347 \h 14Figure 3. Tombstone Mining Claims Overlay, 1881. PAGEREF _Toc468432348 \h 15Figure 4. Tombstone Mining Claims, 1881. PAGEREF _Toc468432349 \h 16Figure 5. Tombstone Building Design Materials, 1886. PAGEREF _Toc468432350 \h 17Figure 6. Tombstone Fire Damage in 1881 and 1882. PAGEREF _Toc468432351 \h 17Establishment of the Tombstone Town SiteWhen Ed Schieffelin and Richard Gird founded the Tombstone mining claim it was with the intention to work the land in order to gain a quick profit and move onto a new location. Outside of developing mining operation infrastructure there was no consolidated plan to establish a permanent settlement at Tombstone until after 1886. The unregulated, potential for profit created the opportunity for men to take advantage of others. This is evident in the manner that James Clark, Thomas Bidwell, and Joseph Palmer failed to properly incorporate the city of Tombstone in 1879. Additionally, key infrastructure support in the form of city fire fighting teams and facility construction codes were not given priority during the development of Tombstone. As a result, Tombstone was plagued with a myriad of calamities in the first seven years of the town’s existence. Many of the calamities were the result of a desire for quick profit, a lack of leadership and regulation, and poor city development planning.The local paper, Tombstone Epitaph, was a champion for the community. The Epitaph reported an optimistic message that did not always provide a clear picture of the situation on the ground in Tombstone and increased the transient population into Tombstone. United States Census Data from 1880, 1900, and 1920 demonstrate that Tombstone was primarily a transient community until 1920. This is due the high number of unmarried males working the mines. The transient population and potential for unregulated profit had devastating effects on the community and environment. The following essay will demonstrate, with the assistance of Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps of 1886 and 1904, local maps, and Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) software, that Tombstone, Arizona had the opportunity to establish a robust community infrastructure but lacked the commitment to maintain the town site. One of Tombstone’s pioneers summed up why the city appealed to so many during the initial founding, “The attractions of Tombstone . . . are easily summed up in one word — money. . . . People do not come here to live because it is an agreeable abiding place, but because wages and business are good. The expense of living is high, but one is able to save something toward a pleasanter \sic\ home elsewhere if one practices economy." Tombstone’s founders, Ed Schieffelin and Richard Gird, spent more time prospecting in the hills surrounding Tombstone then they did in the city itself. Schieffelin founded his first claim, Tombstone, on 1 August, 1877. Over the next three years, Schieffelin and his associate Gird established the Toughnut and Corbin Mill and Mining Companies which they sold in March of 1880 for $600,000. Within a year after selling their mining interests, Schieffelin and Gird were out of Tombstone, never to return. According to Jeanne Devere, Tombstone witnessed the town’s biggest rise in population during what she referred to as the ‘Bonanza Period’ from 1878 to 1886. The census data from 1880, lists the population of Tombstone at 3,423 people just three years after Ed Schieffelin made the initial claim in the area. The 1880 census lists ninety-two percent of Tombstone’s population was male, with only twenty-four percent married. In 1900, the numbers drop to sixty-one percent male, thirty-five percent married. In 1920, Tombstone looks to have a more stable population with fifty-three percent male, forty-two percent married (See Figure 1). Coming back to 1882, the estimated size of Tombstone was between 5,000-15,000 people. I believe the conservative number, 5,000, is more realistic based upon the Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps of 1886 (See Figure 2). The community did not have the infrastructure to support a larger population. While a by name list does not exist for the Tombstone boom in 1882, one can assume that population is ninety percent male with majority of the population vocations listed as miner or laborer, which account for fifty-seven percent of the occupations listed in the 1880 Census. To accommodate the rapid increase in population the town of Tombstone rapidly built a town that was administered by the Tombstone Townsite Company.Tombstone did not have a strong leadership presence during the town’s formative years. The Tombstone Townsite Company, also known as the Clark, Gray, and Company, surveyed a smooth and easily accessible piece of land referred to as Goose Flats for the Tombstone town site on 19 April, 1879. The town site was a well-designed site that featured twelve numbered streets intersecting four named streets (Toughnut, Allen, Fremont, and Stafford) at right angles. The streets were referred to as broad, which made it easy to accommodate the mining industry and rapid population increase during the early 1880’s. The Townsite Company failed to incorporate the Town of Tombstone when the company did not pay the $400 to patent the surveyed land. The failure to pay the fee to incorporate the town seems like a minor oversight by the Townsite Company until it is noted that the three signatures on the Tombstone Town Site Claim in 1879 are not the names of the individuals who signed the document. The Townsite Company began selling lots to anyone willing to purchase the land without a town patent. This posed two problems. The first issue is that the lots the Townsite Company was selling were empty deeds. The second is the surveyed Tombstone Town Site covered five existing mining claims in 1879. A mining ‘claim’ is a 1500 foot by 600 foot piece of land that an individual can purchase to retain right over all ore contained in the ground below the claim. According United States mining laws, “A townsite patent, when issued, will not deprive a person of any right existing at the date under any valid mining claim.” After valuable ore was found in the Tombstone area, multiple mining claims were staked over the Tombstone Town Site in hopes to capture valuable land before the city of Tombstone was actually incorporated. According to a map illustrated by Frank Ingoldsby, 33 mining claims were within the surveyed streets of Tombstone City Limits by 1881 (Figure 3 & 4). During Tombstone’s initial years Arizona was still a territory and lacked a government with dedicated executive branch. The lack of government control can best be demonstrated on 3 May, 1882, when President of the United States Chester Arthur threatened to instill martial law if the territory could not police its populace.The Tombstone Townsite Company officials issued lots to the residents of Tombstone with very little consistency and had multiple fraudulent dealings from 1879-80. It was reported that lots within Tombstone were to be sold for $50-$2,000 dollars, depending on the location of the lot. For instance, in February of 1880, Charles Brown, owner of the Brown’s and Grand Hotels, was issued two lots for $1 after J. H. Brown paid $400 for one lot. The location of Charles Brown’s lots were in the heart of Tombstone at the corners of Allen and Fourth Street. J. H. Brown’s lot is not listed in L. W. McKenney’s Business Directory in 1883. The McKenney’ Business Directory is a comprehensive volume that lists commercial interests in towns located on the Western Frontier. For an undisclosed reason J.H. Brown paid The Tombstone Townsite Company hundreds of dollars more than Charles Brown for a lot with no identified commercial interest. The Tombstone Epitaph established the citizen’s league where citizens, whose deeds to lots were not recognized by the Townsite Company, could post a dispute against the Townsite Company in the newspaper free of charge. The Tombstone’s Mayor, Alder Randall, was arrested for the fraudulent land dealings; however, charges were dismissed. Judge Wells Spicer presided over the case, “felt that the mayor had committed a great wrong, but he could find no law that made it a crime.” Tombstone was finally incorporated on 22 September, 1880, over fifteen months after the original patent was filed. Tombstone’s lack of planning and leadership resulted in catastrophic fires and unnecessary expenditures. The Tombstone Township was initially built with simple, wooden frame buildings in close proximity to one another. According to Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps from 1886, 55% of the buildings in Tombstone were wooden frame structures (Figure 5). In the nineteenth century, fire was major concern of frontier towns. In 1880, the Sycamore Water Company signed an exclusive rights contract for $60,000 with the city of Tombstone that made Sycamore Water Company the only authorized water dealer within Tombstone City Limits. The Sycamore Water Company ran water from the Dragoon Mountains through pipelines that were installed within Tombstone to distribute water to the community and provide a running source of water to assist in the event of a fire. On 22 June, 1881, Tombstone suffered its first major fire. The fire lasted for 75 minutes and completely destroyed four blocks, everything within between 5th and 7th Streets and Fremont to Tougnut. Tombstone’s Engine Company Number 1 responded to the fire. The water supplied from the Sycamore Water Company lacked the water pressure required to be of any use in fighting the fire. Instead, Engine Company Number 1, with the assistance of the local population started bucket brigades in order to douse the fire and destroyed buildings in the fires path to create fire breaks. The fire caused substantial damage, estimates from the fire show over $277,000 in damage to local infrastructure (Figure 6). The Epitaph called the fire a “Baptism” for Tombstone. The paper continued to state that Tombstone would learn from the tragedy and come out stronger. Within six months Tombstone was rebuilt with eyes on ensuring that another fire did not happen. Just four days after the fire the Tombstone City Council approved the Hook and Ladder Company and purchased a used ladder truck from San Francisco. The lack of water pressure available to combat the fire forced the Tombstone City Council to rescind the exclusive rights water contract with the Sycamore Water Company and offer a $500,000 contract to the Huachuca Water Company who would pipe in Water from the Huachuca Mountains. The Huachuca Water Company’s system would be a gravitational system that would deliver 1.2 million gallons of water daily with water pressure on the main lines at 480 pounds. This far exceeded the previous output of the Sycamore Water Company, who with the aid of wagons, could only supply up to 60,000 gallons of water to Tombstone on any given day. It is interesting to note that prior to erecting the Huachuca Water Company water lines, water had been discovered in the Tombstone Mines in March 1881. Water in the mines was not unusual. In fact, the water was not considered an issue until the following year when two major mines, the Grand Central and Contention, encountered substantial water at the 600 foot level. The two mines partnered together to purchase a pair of Cornish Pumps, massive pump engines designed in England, that would pump the water out of the mines for $350,000. At full capacity the Cornish pumps had the strength to pump over one million gallons of water in a day, which would drain the water in the mines in five hours. Based upon numbers recorded in 1901 -1911, the water evicted from the Grand Central and Contention Mines could have provided ample water to a city of 30,000 for eight years. Unfortunately, the aquifer beneath Tombstone was never tapped for municipal use and the Huachuca Water Company did not complete their gravity fueled water line into Tombstone before 26 May, 1882, the date of the second massive fire in Tombstone. The damage caused by the second fire almost doubled the damage of the first fire at close to $500,000. While the fire covered a little over three blocks, one block less than the fire in 1881, the fire consumed a sector of town that was more developed. Just days after the fire, the Epitaph claimed that Tombstone would once again rise from flames like a phoenix. By the end of June the Huachuca Water Company installed water lines connected to fire hydrants into Tombstone. By the end of summer in 1882, all scars from the fire were erased from Fremont Street as Tombstone rebuilt. According to data recorded in the mid-twentieth century, the city of Tombstone was sitting on a massive aquifer that could have removed water from the mines, provided a long-term water solution for the town, and aided the Tombstone in fire prevention at a fraction of the cost to pipe water in from the mountain springs. Tombstone continued to prosper in spite of the fires in the early 1880’s. The addition of the Cornish pumps forced the mining companies to reduce daily wages from $4 per day to $3. The wages in the mines of tombstone still exceeded the daily gold panning average of $1 per day in the surrounding area. As a result, transient miners flocked to Tombstone in hopes of earning a personal fortune. Unfortunately, Tombstone area was considered a soft mine claim. The ore in the Tombstone district required less manpower to extract then in a typical mining camp. The Mining and Scientific Press identified the max capacity to work the mines in Tombstone at 400 miners. The capacity in the mines limited the overall growth of Tombstone unless new commercial interests were identified. Tombstone was burned by another devastating fire in May of 1886. The Cornish Pump at Grand Central Mine was destroyed, the estimated damage was $300,000. With the Cornish Pump destroyed the Grand Central Mine was unable to remove water from the mines and ceased producing ore. The damage was compounded that summer when the price of silver dropped to $.90 per ounce and Tombstone mines were forced to lay off half of the mining force. The drop in Silver was so severe that the Tombstone School had to close temporarily in 1886 and again 1887 due to lack of funds. Despite the desperate times in 1886, the Epitaph continued to push a positive message stating, “The ensuing year is most encouraging.” The local mines were able to continue to work by hiring a work force from outside of Tombstone for a lower salary than local residents. As a result, Tombstone reported on U.S. Census Data a high number of unmarried males working the mines until 1920. The appeal of a mining camp is the sense of uncertainty coupled with the hope of a lucrative discovery. As I stated earlier, U.S. Census Data from 1880-1920 demonstrated that Tombstone did not have a stable population until 1920. The method that the Tombstone Townsite Company fraudulently sold land to local residents undermined the peoples trust in the governing officials. Additionally, local water sources were not adequately identified in order to support municipal and commercial interests in an efficient manner. Finally, the rush to build Tombstone led to disastrous results when fires destroyed large portions of the town and critical mining infrastructure. The futility of establishing Tombstone town site is best said by the founder, Ed Schieffelin, “I am restless here and wish to go somewhere that has wealth for the digging of it. I can't say that I care to be rich — it isn't that. . . . But I like the excitement of being right up against the earth trying to coax her gold away to scatter it.” FiguresFigure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 1. Tombstone Male Population and Married Population Percentage. The figure above lists the percentage of the population in Tombstone, AZ that was male and percentage of the population that was married in 1880 – 1920 according to US Census Data from that time period. The figure demonstrates the high transient population in Tombstone during the Bonanza years (1876-1886) and how long it took for Tombstone to have a stable population. Figure made by Anthony Hampe using Microsoft Excel, "United States Census, 1880, 1900, and 1920." Database with images. FamilySearch. : 14 June 2016. Citing NARA microfilm publication T9, T623, and T625. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.NNFigure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 2. Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Map, Tombstone, AZ, 1886. The document above is a Tombstone Fire Insurance Plan Map that illustrates the number of buildings in Tombstone in 1886. Sanborn recorded 562 facilities built in Tombstone in 1886. The buildings highlighted in yellow are vacant. Tombstone did not have the number of facilities to support a population over 10,000. QGIS Map Created by Anthony Hampe using “ATIS_Routes.” Arizona State University, GIS Data Repository, and "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, JUL 1886.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867- 1970. 2013. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 3. Tombstone Mining Claims Overlay, 1881. The figure above shows where the Tombstone Town Site overlapped mining claims in 1881. The buildings depicted are from a Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Map in 1886. The majority of Tombstone’s Town Site is over several mining claims. Issues arose between mine claim owners and the Townsite Company over who possessed the land. QGIS Map created by Anthony Hampe using “ATIS_Routes.” Arizona State University, GIS Data Repository; "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, JUL 1886.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867- 1970. 2013; Ingoldsby, Frank, Map of the Tombstone Mining District, 1881. United States Deputy Mineral Surveyors. H. S. Crocker & Co., San Francisco: 1881. Courtesy of Tombstone Chamber of Commerce. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 4. Tombstone Mining Claims, 1881. The map above is used in the QGIS in Figure 3. QGIS can distort the image and make it difficult to read the map when it is georeferenced in QGIS. Ingoldsby, Frank, Map of the Tombstone Mining District, 1881. United States Deputy Mineral Surveyors. H. S. Crocker & Co., San Francisco: 1881. Courtesy of Tombstone Chamber of Commerce.Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 5. Tombstone Building Design Materials, 1886. The pie chart indicates the percentage of buildings in Tombstone by the materials the building is made from. The majority of Tombstone’s buildings in 1886 are still wooden frame structures. However, the majority of buildings built in the commercial district are listed as Fire Protected. Pie Chart made by Anthony Hampe using Microsoft Excel and "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, JUL 1886.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867- 1970. 2013. Figure SEQ Figure \* ARABIC 6. Tombstone Fire Damage in 1881 and 1882. The above maps show the area that was damaged in the June 22, 1881 and the May 25, 1882 fires side by side. The #1 star is where the 22 June, 1881 fire started and the #2 star is where the 26 May, 1882 fire started. The fire damaged separate sections of the city. Even though the fire in May, 1882 covered less ground, the damage was higher than the 1881 fire due to the developed infrastructure between 2nd and 4th Streets. "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, JUL 1886.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867- 1970. 2013, highlighted by Anthony Hampe using Microsoft PowerPoint and references from Underhill, Lonnie E. "The Perils of Fire in a Silver Camp." Journal Of The West 55, no. 2 (Spring2016 2016): 70-87. America: History and Life, EBSCOhost. Bibliography“ATIS_Routes.” Arizona State University, GIS Data Repository. . Accessed 30 OCT 16. Bailey, Lynn R. “Too Tough to Die” The Rise, fall, and Resurrection of a Silver Camp, 1878 to 1990. Tucson: Westernlore Press, 2004.Bahre, Conrad J., and Charles F. Hutchinson. "The Impact of Historic Fuelwood Cutting on the Semidesert Woodlands of Southeastern Arizona." Journal of Forest History 29, no. 4 (1985): 175-86. doi:10.2307/4004712. Accessed November 1, 2016.Burk, Matia McClelland. "The Beginnings of the Tombstone School, 1879-1893." Arizona and the West 1, no. 3 (1959): 248-57. . Accessed November 1, 2016.Clements, Eric L. "Bust and bust in the mining West." Journal Of The West 35, no. 4 (October 1996): 40-53. America: History and Life, EBSCOhost. . Accessed November 1, 2016.Devere, Jeanne. "The Tombstone Bonanza, 1878-1886." Arizoniana 1, no. 3 (1960): 16-20. . Accessed November 1, 2016.Hollyday, E. F. 1963. “A Geohydrologic Analysis of Mine Dewatering and Water Development, Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona,” January. . Accessed November 1, 2016.Ingoldsby, Frank, Map of the Tombstone Mining District, 1881. United States Deputy Mineral Surveyors. H. S. Crocker & Co., San Francisco: 1881. Courtesy of Tombstone Chamber of Commerce. L. M. McKenney & Co. 1883. McKenney’s Business Directory of the Principal Towns of Central and Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, Southern Colorado and Kansas?: Including Cities and Towns on the Southern Pacific, Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, Kansas Pacific, and St. Joseph and Western Railroads. Oakland, Cal.?: Pacific Press. . Accessed 11 NOV 16.Myrick, David F. "The Railroads of Southern Arizona: An Approach to Tombstone." The Journal of Arizona History 8, no. 3 (1967): 155-70. . Accessed October 23, 2016“Tombstone, AZ Population.” 2016. . Accessed November 1.“Tombstone Mining District Map, 1881.” Tombstone Chamber of Commerce. . Accessed Novemeber 1, 2016. "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, JUL 1886.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867- 1970. 2013. . Accessed October 23, 2016. "Tombstone, Sanborn Fire Insurance Plan Maps, MAY 1904.”* Digital Sanborn Maps 1867-1970. 2013. . Accessed October 23, 2016.Underhill, Lonnie E. "The Perils of Fire in a Silver Camp." Journal Of The West 55, no. 2 (Spring2016 2016): 70-87. America: History and Life, EBSCOhost. ?. Accessed November 1, 2016.Underhill, Lonnie E., Ed Schieffelin, and Richard Gird. "The Tombstone Discovery: The Recollections of Ed Schieffelin & Richard Gird." Arizona and the West 21, no. 1 (1979): 37-76. . Accessed November 1, 2016."United States Census, 1880." Database with images. FamilySearch. : 14 June 2016. Citing NARA microfilm publication T9. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d."United States Census, 1900." Database with images. FamilySearch. : 14 June 2016. Citing NARA microfilm publication T623. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d."United States Census, 1920." Database with images. FamilySearch. : 14 June 2016. Citing NARA microfilm publication T625. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.Walker, Henry P. "Arizona Land Fraud: Model 1880: The Tombstone Townsite Company." Arizona and the West 21, no. 1 (1979): 5-36. . Accessed October 23, 2016. ................
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