Sunday, Oct. 9
On this date in 1880, David K. Udall arrived from Kane, Utah, to serve as bishop of St. John’s Ward in Arizona.
On this date in 1898, St. Michael’s Mission, a converted trading post building, was blessed and officially dedicated to St. Michael, the Archangel. The first masses were offered on Oct. 11 with a table to serve as an altar, and salt and pepper shakers as wine and water cruets.
On this date in 1921, the railroad police of the Tucson division of Southern Pacific reported they had removed 3,373 hobos from Southern Pacific trains in one month.
On this date in 1929, plans for a Nogales High School band came one step nearer to reality with the signing of contracts for the purchase of band instruments.
On this date in 2009, three people died following a sweat lodge ceremony in Sedona conducted by self-help author James Arthur Ray. Ray served nearly two years in prison after being convicted of negligent homicide charges.
Monday, Oct. 10
On this date in 1908, newspapers reported excellent progress on the new electric power plant under construction on the Hassayampa River south of Wickenburg. The 2,000 horsepower, $250,000 plant was to provide electricity for the town of Wickenburg and mines in the area.
On this date in 1910, the Constitutional Convention convened in Phoenix with George W.P. Hunt elected chairman. Initiative, referendum and recalls were included in spite of President William Howard Taft’s warning he would veto the Constitution if it contained those provisions.
On this date in 1920, the Tucson Gas, Electric Light and Power Co. gas plant was destroyed by fire and Tucson was without gas for three weeks.
Tuesday, Oct. 11
On this date in 1890, the Yuma Prison entered into a contract to supply prison labor for the making of hemp rope.
On this date in 1920, a fire, doing $750,000 worth of damage destroyed more than half the town of Lowell.
On this date in 1929, Tucson’s first “skyscraper,” the 11-story Consolidated National Bank Building, opened and was visited by 33,000 people in two days.
On this date in 1935, hundreds of Arizona and Utah residents gathered at Lee’s Ferry on the Colorado River to commemorate the historic crossing of early emigrants who came to Arizona to found Mormon communities.
Wednesday, Oct. 12
On this date in 1849, the first recorded birth of an Anglo baby in Arizona occurred when a “Mrs. Howard,” traveling with a party of immigrants led by Charles E. Pancoast in Flatboats down the Gila River, stopped along the riverbank to give birth to a child she named “Gila.”
On this date in 1869, Charity Gaston, the first teacher on the Navajo Reservation, arrived at Fort Defiance, but because no space was available, she was unable to start classes for two months.
On this date in 1872, in negotiations lasting from Oct. 1 through Oct. 12, Gen. O. O. Howard and Cochise Chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, drafted and signed a peace treaty in the Apache camp in the Dragoon Mountains.
On this date in 1879, the first Methodist church was organized in Tucson by Superintendent George H. Adams.
On this date in 1901, Camillus S. Fly, well known Tombstone photographer and Cochise County sheriff from 1895 to 1896, died.
On this date in 1929, the city of Florence dedicated its new airport with an aerial circus and speeches.
On this date in 1929, the University of Arizona dedicated its stadium, and Tucson declared a public holiday in honor of the occasion.
On this date in 1940, Tom Mix, early Western movie star, was killed when his car overturned in a wash on what is now the Pinal-Pioneer Parkway.
Thursday, Oct. 13
On this date in 1908, a suit against six Yuma property owners was filed in federal court by the government to have land condemned for the construction of Laguna Dam.
On this date in 1909, President William Howard Taft visited Arizona on a transcontinental tour and promised to do his best to bring statehood there.
On this date in 1913, federal officials arrested the justice of the peace at Washington Camp, Arizona, after finding 10,000 rounds of ammunition in his possession. He was charged with running arms across the border.
On this date in 1934, five prisoners broke out of the Holbrook Jail, locked the deputy in a cell, stole all the guns from the sheriff’s office and escaped in a stolen car.
Friday, Oct. 14
On this date in 1908, a fire destroyed part of Bisbee’s business district and left 500 people homeless. Damage was estimated at $500,000. The blaze originated in the Grand Hotel at about 6:30 p.m. and was finally brought under control with dynamite at 9 p.m.
On this date in 1909, President William Howard Taft visited the Grand Canyon.
On this date in 1934, residents of Paradise Valley burned effigies of Governor B. B. Moeur, Congresswoman Isabella Greenway and Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes in protest of the revocation of a $4,000,000 allotment which had been promised for the construction of a dam on the Verde River.
Saturday, Oct. 15
On this date in 1870, citizens of Phoenix held a meeting and selected an official town site. The first town lots were sold on the following Dec. 23.
On this date in 1873, John L. Blythe built and launched the first large ferry at Lee’s Crossing on the Colorado River.
On this date in 1930, the first airmail arrived in Tucson at 11 a.m. aboard a tri-motored Fokker.
On this date in 1956, construction began on the Glen Canyon Dam, a structure 573 feet above the bed of the Colorado River, 1,500 feet long at the crest and containing a lake of over 28 million acre-feet of water which would extend 186 miles behind the dam.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.