1775-1848

1775 Captain Hugo O'Conor

Captain Hugo O’Conor is the Captain of the Spanish army and the person to make the official birth date of the city of Tucson. This all when Hugo O'Conor born in Dublin in 1734. In the long tradition of Irish exploring the world and displaced people. Hugo O' O'Conor left his country where. Many of his friends and relatives went to France, others like Hugo, joined the Spanish army. There in the army by 1775 he was inspector general of the out post of New Spain. Then that year he decided to move the Presidia of Tubac, now known as Arizona. Northward on the Santa Cruz river to the location of present-day Tucson.

In August 1775 the Spanish Crown sent Hugo O'Conor an Irish man who came to be fondly referred to by the locals as Don Hugo O'Conor, to Tucson to survey the region,locate sties to be used as military post. In 1775, Hugo O’Conor establishes the Tucson Presido. That year he marks the official birth date of the City of Tucson. year marks the official birthdate of the City of Tucson.

1825 Sylvester Pattie & His son James Sylvester was among the first 100 Algo-Americas to meet the Western Apaches and after several skirmishes were the first Anglo-Americas to make a treaty with them. While Sylvester was lessees. The Western Apache chief John Jose in an 1825 treaty permitted him to cultivate a tract of land. Although the Apache generally hated Mexicans this treaty specified they would not molest any Mexicans hired by Sylvester to farm the land. Historically and personally the most significant event in Sylvester patties life was that he was the first American to die on Mexican soil. He was allowed to die In a San Diego prison because he violated their border seeking food and water  1838

Gold is first discovered in the Prescott area; later discoveries in the Bradshaw Mountains in the 1860s contribute to the Town of Prescott being founded along Granite Creek. The Territory of Arizona was created during the Civil War and undoubted as a result of that conflict. Residents of Southern New Mexico Territory had lobbied congress for independence from Santa Fe for years finally turning to the Confederacy (see the Tucson history posted on this blog June 29, 2011). Sliver claims had been staked at Tubac in 1856 and the Colorado River in 1862-1862 (see the Arizona Gold Rush article posted here December 21, 2009). Congress acted and President Lincoln proclaimed the Territory of Arizona 24 February 1863. 1846

The Mexican War, fought partly over control of California and the Arizona-New Mexico territories, begins early in the spring; later that same year the Mormon Battalion, under the command of Lt. Colonel Philip St. George Cooke, crosses southern Arizona, establishing a wagon road to California The route- or branches of the route- began at several different crossings along the Texas stretched of the Pecos River at the eastern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert. The included for instance the lower river crossing near the village of Sheffield Texas the pontoon crossing near the community of Iran the Horsehead crossing 12 miles northwest of the hamlet Girvan the Emigrant crossing some 20 miles southwest of the town of Monahan and Popes camp just below the border between Texas and New Mexico.


 * 1848 story **

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends the Mexican War, giving the United States title to California and Arizona lands north of the Gila River. The Arizona Gila Trail also becomes one of the main routes to newly discovered California gold fields; Papago tribes help gold-seekers survive the desert crossing.

1802 – Due to Indian uprisings, almost all of the Spanish Arizona settlements and missions were abandoned.

1821-1848 – Mexican Period

1821 – The Mexicans declared their independence from Spain on September 16. Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexicans at Puebla defeating the French. Following Mexico’s successful War of Independence, the Arizona region came under Mexican control. Trappers and traders from the United States came into the area.

1822 – The Santa Fe Trail is established between Independence, Missouri and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1824 – American mountain men entered Arizona to trap beaver.

1836 – On March 2, Americans who had settled in Texas declared their independence from Mexico. On March 6, General Santa Ana of Mexico surrounded the mission at Alamo, Texas, and massacred the rebels. On April 21, Texan forces led by General Sam Houston defeated Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto.

1845 – Texas joined the United States for protection, and the U.S. recognized the Rio Grande as the border 1846 – The Mormon Battalion, part of the U. S. Army and the only religious unit in American military history, marched over 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California, crossing Arizona on their trek. The battalion’s march and service was instrumental in helping secure new lands in several Western states, especially the Gadsden Purchase of 1853 of much of southern Arizona. The march also opened a southern wagon route to California.

1846-48 – The Mexican American War was fought between Mexico and America over control of Texas. The United States believed that it was destined to expand from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean (“Manifest Destiny”). The war ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in which Mexico agreed to give up its claims to the areas of Texas, California, Arizona (north of the Gila River), New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. All land grants that had been issued either by the King of Spain or the government of Mexico were to be honored by the U.S.

1848-Present – American Period

1849 – Fort Defiance was established on the eastern border line between the Arizona and New Mexico territories.

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