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 |