Cochise County AZGenWeb History Chronology

Chronology of Cochise County, Arizona Between the Years 1847 - 1912
1846 May	President James K. Polk declares war between U.S. & Mexico
1846 Dec	Lt. Col. Phillip St. George Cooke's Mormon Battalion crosses thru Cochise County
1848 Feb	Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. End of Mexican War
1848-1849	Gold discovered in California, which increased traffic of the trails in Cochise County
1853	Gadsden Purchase- area south of Gila River to present day international boundary with Mexico. It was ratified & signed by Pres. Franklin Pierce April 1854. Arizona was part of the New Mexico Territory.
1858	Butterfield Overland Stage Station built north of Dragoon Springs and east of Dragoon
1860	Cochise Co. part of Ewell and Messilla Co., NM
1860	U.S. Decennial Census. AZ enumerated with NM Territory
1861 Feb	2nd Lt. George H. Bascom attempts to capture Chief Cochise at Apache Pass
1861 Aug	Lt. Col. John R. Baylor, CSA, declares AZ to be Confederate Territory
1862 July	Apaches attack Gen. James H. Carlton, Union. Carleton leaves soldiers at Apache Pass
1862 July	Camp Bowie is established
1863 Feb	Congress passes bill creating Arizona Territory. John Goodwin first Territorial Governor
1864	Four original counties created - Mohave, Pima, Yavapai, Yuma
1864 May	U.S. Marshal Milton B. Duffield completes First Census of Arizona Territory.
1869 Apr	Express rider from east attacked by Indians at Apache Pass; mail captured for 3rd time in three months
1870	U.S. Decennial Federal Census - AZ Territory enumerated separately
1872	General Howard and Chief Cochise, draft & signed a peace treaty in camp near Dragoon Springs
1872	Creation of the Chiricahua Indian Reservation
1874 June	Cochise, Chief of Chiricahua Apaches, dies in tribe's stronghold in Dragoon Mountains
1876	Chiricahua Apaches move from their reservation to San Carlos Reservation
1876 Apr	Chiricahua Apaches jump reservation; kill 2 station helpers at Sulpher Springs, murder 1 rancher
1876 July	Renegade Chiricahua kill 2 prospectors
1877 Mar	Camp Huachuca established (renamed Fort Huachuca in 1881)
1877 Aug	John Dunn, government scout, finds first ore in Bisbee District
1877 Sept	Ed Scheffelin records first Tombstone silver claim
1879 Oct	First issue of The Nugget is published in Tombstone
1880	U.S. Decennial Federal Census - AZ Territory
1880 Mar	First Southern Pacific train reaches Tucson, crossing Cochise County
1880 May	John P. Clum prints 1st issue of the Tombstone Epitaph in a tent
1880 July	George Warren bets his interest in Copper Queen Mine (Bisbee) on race against a horse & looses. His share became worth $20,000,000.
1881	A judge passed a law that no Orientals would be welcome in Bisbee.They were allowed on the streets only from dawn to sunset and had to leave town at night.
1881 Jan	Tucson, Yuma, Tombstone connected with all points east & west by telegraph lines along Southern Pacific Railroad Route
1881 Jan 3	Cochise County created by carving up Pima County.
1881 Jan	Services held in newly finished Catholic Church in Tombstone
1881 Mar	Water appears in rich silver mines in Tombstone
1881 June	Barrel of whiskey explodes in Tombstone saloon, fire erupts & destroys business section.
1881 Oct	OK Corral Battle, Tombstone. Earps, Clantons and McLowrys
1881 Dec	Marshall Virgil Earp of Tombstone shot in back and crippled for life.
1881 Dec	City of Tombstone, Cochise County, incorporated
1882	Cochise Co. Hospital established at Tombstone. First Dr, George Goodfellow, specialized in gunshot wounds. Hospital was moved to Douglas in 1909.
1882 Mar	Morgan Earp killed from ambush in Tombstone. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday ride out of Tombstone and never return.
1882 May	President Chester A. Arthur warns Arizona he will place it under marital law unless it shows more respect for law and order. The warning is directed chiefly at Cochise county.
1882 June	First service in St. Paul's Episcopal Church, in Tombstone is held. This church was the first Episcopal church built in Arizona Territory.
1882 July	John Ringo found sitting in the forks of five oak trees - he had been shot. Grave marker is in Turkey Creek
1882 Sept	Bisbee miners halt work in order to lynch a drunken killer.
1883 Jan	Governor F. A. Tritle deplores lawlessness, especially in Cochise County.The 12th Territorial Legislature passes laws against vice and gambling.
1883 Dec	Five "cowboys" rob Bisbee store, shoot up the town killing 4 citizens. Leader is taken from Tombstone jail and lynched.
1883 Dec	Sulphur Springs artesian water is found.
1883 Dec	Bisbee Massacre
1884	Five Bisbee bandits are hanged simultaneously in Tombstone.
1885 Nov.	Phelps-Dodge partners launch the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company
1886	One of the Heliograph Stations placed at Signal Hill. Stations were strung out between Bowie and Fort Huachuca
1886 Apr.	General Nelson Miles arrives at Bowie Station then proceeds to Fort Bowie to replace General Crook
1886 May	Fire destroys Grand Central pump house at Tombstone; mines are flooded
1886 Aug	Chief Geronimo surrenders to General Nelson A. Miles in Skeleton Canyon
1887	Earthquake felt throughout Cochise County and beyond
1887 May	Tombstone Epitaph reports volcano erupts in the Dragoon Mountains, following a severe earthquake
1888 Feb	Westbound Southern Pacific train robbed at Stein's Pass. Reward of $2,000 offered. Cochise sheriff goes to Mexico looking for robbers and is jailed for two weeks.
1890 Feb	Tombstone prospector reports no Indian is known to have recovered from an influenza epidemic
1890 Feb	Five robbers hold up Southern Pacific train at Fairbanks. Three Fingered Jack is mortally wounded
1890 June	Pearce mine fuel explodes and destroys a 50-stamp mill and starts a section of town on fire
1890 July	Warren Earp, youngest and last of the Earp brothers in Cochise County, starts a fight in Willcox and is killed
1892	John Slaughter built his second house at San Bernardino; his first home was destroyed in the 1887 earthquake
1892 Jan	Tombstone makes another effort to recover silver deposits; installs a diamond drill in Lucky Cuss mine
1893 Sept	Cattlemen and farmers of Cochise and Graham Counties are warned to go armed at all times because of rumors of the Apache Kid lurking in the mountains
1894 Mar	Court of private land claims voids Spanish land grants along border. Nogales, Huachuca and Tombstone celebrate with bonfires and salutes.
1896 Jan	Hobo gang resist officers at Benson: two hobos killed and one officer wounded
1896 Oct	Flash flooding in Whetstone Mountains sweep Benson. Two mothers, four children die
1897 Jan	In midst of mining and building boom, a settlement at Pearce begins. Huge stamp mill ordered and deserted homes brought in from Tombstone.
1897 Feb	Tucson, Benson, Tombstone and Pantano report brilliant meteor passing overhead at low altitude.
1898	Bisbee Daily Review is established.
1899 Sept	Southern Pacific train held up at Cochise and $10,000 taken. Two constables are caught and convicted.
1900	Portal founded by Otto Duffener
1900	Cochise County had its first telephone - only served local communities until 1910 when a regular system was put in.
1900 Nov	Two Haldeman brothers legally hanged in Tombstone for killing two peace officers
1901 Jan	Douglas established. Named after Dr. James Douglas. (incorporated in May 1905)
1901 Mar	Governor Nathan Murphy formed Arizona Rangers - 1st Capt. Burton Mossman; 1st Headquarters was at Bisbee as most outlawry was along the Mexican border
1902	First motor car put into service as a taxi in Douglas
1902	First organized sport in Douglas was tennis
1902 Jan	Town of Bisbee incorporated. March 15th the mayor and community council change the official name to City of Bisbee
1902 Mar	Douglas Dispatch newspaper established
1902 Mar	Construction of Territorial Reform School begins at Benson
1902 Mar	Douglas got its first Fire Department - a hose cart and was pulled by several men
1902 Nov	Consolidated Mines Co. reopens Tombstone silver mines.
1903 June	Pumps are shut down as Tombstone miners strike. Water rises in the mines.
1903 July	Heavy rainstorm between Dragoon Mountains and Tombstone, washes out six El Paso and Southwestern Railroad bridges and floods Fairbank with 6 feet of water
1903 Oct	Methodist Episcopal Church organized in Douglas.
1903 Dec	Tombstone sets another record when Billy Stiles and Burt Alvord break out of jail for the second time and take 11 other prisoners with them.
1904 Feb	Burt Alvord, notorious Cochise County outlaw, is wounded and captured near Naco.
1904 Dec	Bisbee Miner reports that 500 Bisbee stockholders will share $525,000 as a result of decision against South Bisbee Copper Company
1906 Jan	Western Union opens first direct wire between Tucson and Bisbee.
1907 Feb	Lt. Harry Wheeler, Arizona Ranger, prevents double murder and although twice wounded, kills assailant on the main street of Benson
1907 Apr	Western Federation of Miners attempts to organize and strike mines at Bisbee.
1907 June	Fire destroys 80 buildings in Mexican section of Bisbee, 600 made homeless
1907 Oct	Yuma police stop poker games in saloons. Bisbee, Globe and other towns consider taking same stand.
1907 Dec	Deputy Sheriff White of Cochise County runs wild in a railroad sleeping car between Yuma and Gila Bend, terrifies women, tries to shoot conductor, and is finally manacled with his own handcuffs.
1908 Feb	Alarmed by number of smallpox cases, Bisbee Board of Health orders all school children vaccinated.
1908 Mar	Three carloads of giant Prescott pumps reach Tombstone for installation at the 1,000 foot level.
1908 July	Bisbee High School Alumni launches first scholarship assistance movement in Arizona
1908 Aug	Disastrous rainstorm sends flood roaring down Tombstone Canyon in Bisbee. Library, post office and merchants basements are flooded.
1908 Aug	William Downing completed term of 10 years in penitentiary for his part in the Stiles-Alvord holdup of the Southern Pacific train, later resists arrest in Willcox and is killed by an AZ Ranger.
1908 Oct	Fire which blazes beyond control, rages in Bisbee business and residential section. Los estimated at $500,000.
1908 Nov	Gadsden Hotel had its grand opening.
1909	County clerks began using the typewriter.
1909 May	Two bankers who wrecked 1st National Bank in Bisbee get minimum sentences of 5 years.
1909 Aug	A discharged printer kills two linotype operators at the Bisbee Review over labor troubles.
1909 Dec	Two trainmen killed and 40 passengers injured when Southern Pacific jumps tracks near Benson.
1910 June	President Taft signs Enabling Act for AZ statehood. AZ celebrates wildly.
1911 Jan	Underground water and low price of silver put an end to mining at Tombstone.
1911 Jan	Home Missions of Congregational Church aid in organizing Church of Christ at Pearce
1911 Apr	Mexican rebels and Federals battle in streets of Agua Prieta and bullets cross the border into the City of Douglas where four citizens are wounded
1911 May	Cochise supervisors, angered because the proposed state highway will by pass Bisbee, and they threaten the campaign to move capitol from Phoenix to Tucson
1912 Feb 1914	President Taft signs proclamation making Arizona the 48th state of the Union. George Wiley Paul Hunt is the first state Governor