Charles Debrille Poston
Charles Debrille Poston (1825–1902) is considered the
Father of Arizona due to his prominent role in procuring
Arizona’s Territorial status. Poston was also one of the area’s
first white explorers, arriving in 1853 on a mining exploration
trip.
Exploration and Riches
Tales of the California Gold Rush drew Charles Poston, a
young lawyer in Kentucky, west to find his fortune. Far from
being a solitary prospector who relied on luck, Poston, the son of
a printer, learned the basics of mining from an office in
California. Poston “Knew every foot of the country; talked
Spanish like a native; believed in the people; believed in the
climate; had full faith in the silver; completely relied upon the
gold; never doubted that Arizona was the grand diamond in the
rough of all our Territories,” wrote friend J. Ross Browne.
He arrived in San Francisco in the early 1850s and
received funding from French bankers to explore the land that would become the Arizona Territory—
before the Gadsden Purchase had officially made these areas part of America! After several false starts
(including a shipwreck near the Mexican port of Guaymas and being detained by Mexican authorities) he
located Spanish mine workings near Ajo and other mines in what is now the Santa Cruz Valley in Pima
County. On the same trip, he met the commander of Fort Yuma, Samuel Heintzelman, and helped to
found Colorado City, now Yuma. Using Heintzelman’s connections and making several trips back east, he
was able to put together the Sonora Exploring and Mining Company. He set up headquarters in Tubac in
1854 with Heintzelman as company president. His was the first mining company to invest capital and
develop mines in the area.
Early on, Poston distinguished himself as a shrewd dweller in a wild place. His mining camp in
the Cerro Colorado Mountains near Tubac, called the Heintzelman Mine (renamed the Silver Queen
Mine), quickly grew to 800. By 1858, the camp employed over 1,000 Mexican miners and excavated an
estimated $3,000 worth of silver a day. Poston ruled his outpost, importing a printing press, printing his
own money (the currency was called boletas), performing marriages and even baptisms. In his memoirs,
Poston reports, “We had no law but love and no occupation but labor. No government, no taxes, no
public debt, no politics.”
In one situation, Father Macheboeuf, a Catholic priest, arrived from Santa Fe and declared all of
the marriages performed by Poston to be illegal. In response, Poston reportedly “donated” $700 to the
priest, who re-performed the wedding ceremonies.
Creating the Arizona Territory
In 1861, rising tensions between miners and the Apache people forced abandonment of the
settlement. Poston left after his brother was killed by Mexican outlaws. Poston went to Washington,
D.C. where he became an aide for Heintzelman, now a General. Asked to help persuade President
Lincoln to create the Arizona Territory, he threw himself into the task of convincing Washington of the
worth and value of the area. In 1863, his efforts were successful, and President Lincoln signed the
Arizona Territory into law.
Poston then returned to Arizona as the Territory’s first Superintendent of Indian Affairs, where
he worked hard to resolve conflicts and improve relations between American Indians and the influx of
Mexican and new American settlers. In July 1864, he was elected as Arizona’s first delegate to Congress
(though he was defeated a few months later).
He later, in 1877, became the head of the U.S. land office in Florence. From 1890 to 1895 he
worked in Phoenix as agent of the Department of Agriculture. Poston helped establish the Society of
Arizona Pioneers in 1886, which later became the Arizona Pioneer Historical Society and became part of
the Arizona Historical Society.
Poston’s Butte
Poston’s behavior became increasingly eccentric.
Suffering the loss of several family members, he sank deep
into poverty after leaving the Department of Agriculture.
Noting his valuable service to the Territory, the Arizona
Legislature voted to pay him a pension in 1899. Upon his
death in 1902 he was buried in a pauper’s grave. In 1925 his
remains were relocated to a pyramid-shaped monument
near Florence. The location, once known as Primrose Hill, is
now named Poston’s Butte.
Definitions:
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Procuring- the action of gaining something, or obtaining with effort
Solitary- separated from or unfrequented by others
Prospector- someone who explores an area for its minerals
Gadsden Purchase- 1853 agreement created by the US to buy a strip of land from Mexico
Shrewd- marked by practical headed intelligence
Delegate- a person appointed or elected to represent others